Good Bye, My Love
by PorQueTonSerio
Summary: Stiglitz/OC. What happens when an American girl living in Nazi-occupied France gets sent to prison?
1. An Introduction

Anika looked down at her shaking, battered hands and closed them into fists to stay them. Her eyes drifted up her arms, taking in the many cuts and bruises that shown on them. Her legs were no different nor was much else of her body. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her bruises to black and blue smudges. She closed her eyes and laid back on her wooden excuse for a bed. She never once thought that she'd be there, in that prison. She still wasn't completely aware of why she was being held besides the false allegations against her. As she laid there bruised, beaten, and crying, she thought back to what events had led up to her imprisonment…


	2. Chapter 1

She could remember the day that the Nazis came into La Fleur Bleue _(The Blue Flower)_. It was a cold night in the fall of 1942. Anika walked through the door of the bar and halted. Before her was a sea of black, grey, and light green uniformed men. She tried not to panic; she had never met a Nazi before and she figured that meeting one while she was nervous would probably not work in her favor. None of them seemed to take much notice of her as she proceeded on to her post behind the bar. As she hung up her coat, she could sense that someone was watching her. When she turned back to the bar, she caught a quick glimpse of her on-looker. She didn't look fully at him, but she could feel his gaze on her. She tried to ignore the prickling feeling of being watched as she tended to the men sitting in front of her. She took the drink orders of the men with much difficulty seeing as these Nazis couldn't speak a word a French and they spoke very little English. When she'd finally figured out what they were attempting to order, she made them their drinks and collected their Francs. After that, her station at the bar was a bit slow. Finding nothing else to do, Anika grabbed a clean, white cloth from beneath the bar and began to wipe the remaining glasses clean. She began to make a mental list of things she had to do back home. She became lost in her thoughts and she began to hum along to the song playing on the record player. She was barely aware of her surroundings as she turned her back to the bar and began to stack the glasses she was cleaning.

"Bonsoir." _(Good evening.) _said a cool voice from behind her. She jumped and spun around at the sound of the man's voice. Sitting before her was the man who had been watching her earlier. Anika smiled at him despite the way his unnatural silence unnerved her. He had blue-grey eyes that watched her delicately. His pink lips were split into a bright smile plastered on his pale face. His dark brown hair was parted on the side and slicked back, giving him an air of professionalism. It occurred to her that this man could and probably would be attractive to her if it were not for his actions as a Nazi. That fact alone made her hate the man.

"Bonsoir." she replied with forced pleasantness. She quickly took in his attire: black uniform over a tan button-up undershirt, black hat, and a red and white band around his arm bearing a swastika. She tried to remain pleasant though his presence irked her.

"Ai-je vous surprendre?" _(Did I startle you?) _he asked with genuine concern. She smiled politely and nodded, tucking a strand of her long hair behind her ears.

"Un peu, mais j'aurais dû faire attention." _(A little, but I should have been paying attention.) _she replied. The man before her chuckled out a laugh.

"Non, je n'aurais jamais entendu votre voix si belle, si tu avais été." _(No. I would never have heard your beautiful voice if you had been.) _he said. Anika smiled over her disgust.

"Merci." she said. They grew silent for a moment before the man began to speak again. He ordered a drink, the German "Beer in a Boot", and then moved their conversation along.

"Avez-vous un nom?" _(Do you have a name?) _he asked. Anika looked up at him from the invisible spot she had taken to wiping off of the counter with a smile and nodded.

"Mon nom est Anika Foster." _(My name is Anika Foster) _she said. He muttered her name under his breath a few times as if he were trying it on for size. Then he smiled at her again.

"C'est un beau nom." _(That's a beautiful name.) _he commented. She thanked him and went back to wiping down the counter when he spoke again. "Bien que Foster...ce n'est pas le français." _(Though Foster…it's not French.) _he said. She looked up at him with a steady gaze, making sure to remain calm.

"Non, c'est non. Vous avez une bonne oreille pour les noms de monsieur…?" _(No, it's not. You have a good ear for names Mister…?) _she asked, hoping to distract him with her question. His smile never once faltered making it hard for her to tell whether or not she should be bothered by the fact that he was suspicious of her name.

"Je suis le majeur Dieter Hellstrom." _(I am Major Dieter Hellstrom.) _he replied. She gave him a look as though she were impressed.

"Majeur?" she asked with false impression. He nodded with his same smile. He took a quick drink from his glass before looking back up at her.

"Donc, Anika. Combien de temps avez-vous vécu ici à Paris?" _(So, Anika. How long have you lived here in Paris?) _he asked. She looked him carefully, wondering where this question was going. She tried to keep her apprehension masked as she responded.

"Près de deux ans maintenant. Voire plus." _(Almost two years now. Maybe more.) _she responded. His smile hadn't faltered and she struggled to maintain a light tone. Truthfully, alarm bells were ringing inside of her, causing her nerves to rise. She reached up and began to twist a lock of hair between her fingers as she always did when she was uncomfortable.

"Et où est votre lieu d'origine?" _(And where is your place of origin?) _he asked, still smiling. His smile was beginning to strike her as eerie as opposed to pleasant. She remained upbeat.

"Je suis né à grandi à Chicago, Illinois." _(I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.) _she replied, hoping her fear had not shown in her words.

"Vous êtes américain?" _(You're American?)_ he asked. She looked at him in silence for a moment before nodding.

"Oui." she replied, choosing to speak French instead of English. They were silent for a while with Anika wiping down the counter and Hellstrom drinking while watching her. She kept her mouth shut and he continually watched her with a smile.

"Donc, Anika. À quelle heure vous descendez du travail ce soir?" _(So, Anika. What time do you get off of work tonight?) _he asked pleasantly. She smiled.

"Minuit et demi." _(Half past midnight.) _she replied.

"Et je suppose que vous serez à pied d'ici?" _(And I assume you will be walking from here?) _he asked. She nodded to him.

"Oui." she replied, though a little reluctantly. His smiled deepened.

"Alors, je suis sûr que vous ne m'en voudrez pas si je vous escorter la maison? Si c'est horriblement en retard pour une jeune femme aussi belle que vous, à se promener seul à la maison." _(Then I'm sure you won't mind if I escort you home? It's awfully late for a young woman as beautiful as yourself to be walking home alone.) _he replied. She shook her head with a smile.

"Je vous remercie, mais je serai bien. C'est inutile." _(Thank you, but I should be fine. That's unnecessary.) _she replied. Hellstrom sat up straight and placed his hands flat on the bar's top.

"J'insiste. Ce serait mon plus grand plaisir." _(I insist. It would be my utmost pleasure.) _he replied. She looked at him skeptically for a moment before accepting his request. She found it better to accept than to give him anymore reason to be suspicious of her.

"Si vous insistez, le majeur Hellstrom. Merci." _(If you insist. Thank you, Major Hellstrom.) _she replied with a polite smile.

After that, they shared in a long conversation filled with small talk. Every now and again, a soldier would come up to her and request another drink. Major Hellstrom took to translating for her which she was thankful for. When she finished filling orders, they fell right back into their conversation. Anika found that it was easy for her to remain calm around him. That fact bothered her a bit, but she pushed the thought aside. After many long hours of work, it was finally time for her to return home. She traded shifts with Giselle, her co-worker, and then slipped into her coat with a little help from Major Hellstrom. With that, they made their way out of the bar and onto the cold Parisian streets. They walked in silence for a moment before he spoke to her again.

"À quelle distance de La Fleur Bleue habitez-vous?" _(How far from The Blue Flower do you live?) _he asked, looking sideways and down at her.

"Pas trop loin. C'est sur une promenade de dix minutes." _(Not far. It's about a ten minute walk.) _she replied. He nodded and then looked forward again with a slight smirk.

"C'est une belle nuit." _(It's a beautiful night.) _he commented as he looked skyward at the stars. Anika followed his gaze and observed the beautiful silver pricks of light across the black-ink sky.

"Une soirée vraiment magnifique." _(A beautiful night indeed.) _she replied, looking back down at the road ahead of them. She wasn't sure what else to say. They continued on in silence until they arrived at the steps of her building. She stopped there and turned to face Major Hellstrom. He looked down at her with a pleasant smirk.

"Eh bien, ceci est mon arrêt." _(Well, this is my stop.) _she said with a smile. He nodded to her and looked up at her building, almost studying it. When he looked back down at her, he smiled that same pleasant yet eerie smile.

"C'est ici où nous nous séparons." _(Then, this is where we part) _he said. He took her hand in his and placed a warm-lipped kiss on the back of it. "Bonne nuit, Anika Foster. J'espère vous voir bientôt." _(Good night, Anika Foster. I hope to see you soon.) _he said, still holding her hand in his. His touch sent shivers up her spine and she wished to rip her hand from his. Instead, she inclined her head with a smile.

"Vous savez où vous pouvez me trouver, le majeur Hellstrom." _(You know where to find me, Major Hellstrom.) _she replied politely.

"Je fais en vérité." _(I do indeed.) _he replied, causing her to wonder what he meant by that. Before she could begin to ask him, he straightened up and released her hand. She dropped it to her side and clenched it into a fist. She began to turn away from him and unlock her door. Once she opened the door, she turned back to him.

"Au revoir et bonne nuit, mon majeur." _(Goodbye and good night, Major.) _she said. He nodded to her with a smile.

"Au revoir, Anika." he replied, then turned on his heel and headed back the way he had come. She waited until he was completely out of her sight before she slipped inside the building and closed the door behind her. She made her way up the three flights of stairs quickly, unlocked her apartment door, and then walked into her small place of living. She didn't even bother to flick on the light when she entered the living room. She was exhausted from her encounter with the major and she wanted nothing more than to sleep. She decided that she'd handle her errands before work the next night.

At that, she slinked into her bedroom, removed her coat and black heels, and plopped into bed without even changing her clothes. She fell asleep instantly and was deep asleep when she heard the loud crash coming from her living room. She sat bolt upright and looked around the dark room. She couldn't see much, but she could hear the thumping of boots across the hardwood floor of her home. She began to quietly get out of bed, placing her bare feet down on the floor quietly. She tried to think of anything she could use as a weapon in the room and immediately thought of the letter opener on the desk near the door. She was reaching for the small, silver blade when her door opened and several men walked into her room, guns loaded and ready to fire. Nazis, she realized. **Why are they here, **she wondered fearfully. Their presence couldn't possibly signify anything good. One of the soldiers noticed her and immediately began barking things at her in German. She didn't understand what he was saying and this only caused her to feel evermore fearful of her intruders. The soldier who was speaking to her advanced on her and she quickly wrapped her hand around the handle of the letter opener. As he reached out and grabbed her arm, she jabbed the letter opener into his upper arm with all the force she could give. The man screamed out in pain and back handed her, tossing her sideways onto the floor. She could taste blood in her mouth and stars danced across her vision. She tried to get up only to be kicked in the side by another of the soldiers surrounding her. The lot of them took their turns at hitting and kicking her until a cool voice shouted something to them in German. The soldiers subsided a bit as a man clad in an all black uniform stepped forward. Even in the dark, Anika could recognize Major Hellstrom. His cool voice gave him away. She looked up at him from where she lay on the floor and was surprised to find that same pleasant smile plastered across his pale face.

"Bonsoir." he said in a calm tone. She looked up at him in disgust.

"Que voulez-vous, Hellstrom?" _(What do you want, Hellstrom?) _she asked, wincing at the pain she felt when she moved her jaw. She hastily pulled her tousled hair away from her face as she pushed herself up so that she was at least sitting. She didn't think that she cold bear to stand up just yet. Major Hellstrom kneeled down before her and looked at her with a curious expression.

"Certes, vous comprendrez pourquoi je suis ici?" _(Surely you understand why I'm here?) _he asked. She didn't respond; she only looked at him defiantly. He reached a hand out to touch her face. She leaned away from him and spit a mouthful of blood onto his hand. He immediately pulled his hand away, but never once let his smile falter. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away her bloody saliva.

"Maintenant, il ya la femme Yank je savais existait sous l'ensemble de ces maniérismes français." _(Now there's the Yank woman I knew existed underneath all of those French mannerisms.) _he said to no one in particular. At that, he stood up and addressed his men in German. They responded affirmatively and began scooping Anika up off of the ground. She tugged against their iron grips to no avail, but she wouldn't go out without fighting. She kicked out and felt her foot connect with someone's leg. The soldier yelled out in pain and went to strike her, but Major Hellstrom halted him by muttering something in German. Then, he turned his cool eyes onto Anika with a smile.

"Anika Foster, vous êtes maintenant dans le commandement de la SS sous le soupçon d'être un espion pour le gouvernement des États-Unis." _(Anika Foster, you are now under the command of the SS under the suspicion of being a spy for the United States government.) _he said, still smiling. Anika still said nothing to him, but her look of defiance had turned to one of utter hatred. She wasn't a spy for America and she was sure that he knew that. She should have expected something like this from a Nazi. True, he had seemed kind, but that should have been the tip off from the get go. Hellstrom gestured for the soldiers to proceed and they shackled her wrists and ankles together. Each set of cuffs was linked by one central chain that weighed heavily on her limbs. The men began to drag her out of her room towards the front door of her apartment. One of the men had begun to pull a small, black bag out of his pocket as he walked towards her with it.

"Hey, Hellstrom!" she called over her shoulder, abandoning her French for English. Hellstrom halted the man with the bag and came around to Anika's side. She turned her head to look at him.

"Yes, my dear?" he asked in her native tongue, butchering it with his German accent. Anika stood up as tall as she could manage with the men holding her down.

"Fuck you!" she spat out. For a brief moment, a look of anger passed over Hellstrom's face, causing Anika to smirk. Just as quickly as the look had appeared, it smoothed back into Hellstrom's usual look of calm.

"Some other time, mon amour. Some other time." he replied. With that, the black bag was swept over her head and she was dragged out of her apartment.

Being trapped in that much darkness was beyond frightening, especially when you knew you were surrounded by people who were probably going to kill you. Anika had no sense of direction or balance as the Nazis dragged her down the stairs, banging her shins and bare feet along the steps. She made sure not to make a sound or reveal her pain to them. She wouldn't give them that satisfaction. Soon, she found herself being thrown headfirst into the back of a truck. She could hear some of the men climb into the truck with her. When they had reached where she lay, they hoisted her off of the ground and thrust her down onto a hard wooden seat. Someone sat down very close beside her speaking very quickly in German. The men around her started laughing and she wondered if they were laughing at her. She sat perfectly still until she heard a German voice talking quietly into her ear.

"Wir werden Ihnen eine Lektion zu lehren, Yank Hure." he said. The feel of his hot breath in her ear caused her to jerk away from him. The men around her laughed as she tried her hardest to get as far away from her molester as possible. This action only got her a shove from another soldier and then another from one more. Pretty soon she was being shoved back and forth across the bed of the truck until she lost her balance and crashed down to the floor. Her knees banged painfully against the ground and she banged her head against the knees of one of the Nazis. Even in the darkness of the black bag, she could see spots. She laid there for a moment as the pain rose in her head. She wanted to lay there until everything stopped feeling like it was sloshing around her. But, nay, she was not allowed that luxury as she was lifted back off of the ground and thrust back into her seat. She remained there for the rest of the ride, despite being poked and prodded by the men around her. After what seemed like days, the truck stopped and the men around her began to file out of the truck. Two men grabbed Anika by the upper arms and commanded her out of the truck.

Everything had grown silent around her and she wondered what was happening. She could hear the sounds of boots on dirt and then the sound of a door opening. She tried to assess where she could have been as she was ushered up a few steps and through what she thought was a doorway. The sounds of the footsteps bounced off of the walls around her, making her head ache with each step. She was dragged through many corridors before her escorts released her and ripped the bag off of her head, finally exposing her to the world around her.

Though the lights were dim in the small room, they burned her eyes as they adjusted slowly. She blinked a few times before looking around. The room was small and dank. It smelled of wetness and mold causing her to wrinkle her nose in disgust. There were no windows which made her think that they may have been somewhere underground. She didn't remember going down any steps, but she could have just blocked it out. There seemed to only be one door in the room. The two men that had brought her in stood on either side of it, both equipped with automatic rifles. Other than those minor details, there appeared to be nothing too sinister about the room. Just as she began to wonder if this is where they'd be keeping her, the lone door opened and a man stepped in. She hadn't met this man before, but she could tell that he was of a lower rank than Major Hellstrom; black uniform was slightly less adorned than the Major's. He was short in comparison to most men, but he still managed to be taller than Anika. He had short-cropped, brown hair that contrasted with his startlingly blue eyes. He regarded Anika with a look of disgust before muttering something to the guards. Both men came forward and wordlessly unshackled Anika. She rubbed her wrists where dull bruises were beginning to form.

"Sie stehen mit gespreizten Beinen und Ihre Arme aus, um Ihre Seiten." said the man in front of her. She looked at him in confusion before speaking.

"I don't speak your shit language, Kraut." she said venomously. At this, the man came forward and slapped her hard across the face. Her head snapped to the side from the force of the blow, tossing her knotted hair into her face.

"You may not speak my language, but I do speak yours. You'll do well to remember that the next time you feel the need to mouth off, you American whore." he said. Anika turned back to the man slowly, moving her hair back out of her face. Her nose was bleeding now and the blood was running over her lips, but she didn't move to wipe it away. She was much too afraid to do anything now. She made sure to keep her fear buried deep below the surface and chose to look defiant instead.

"What can I do for you…_sir_?" she asked, putting a disgusted stress on the last word. The man stood up taller and at Anika with slight amusement.

"Put your arms out to the side and spread your legs apart." he said. Anika immediately tensed at this.

"Why?" she asked. A small smirk played on the man's lips.

"Because I am going to perform a formal search. I need to make sure that you're not concealing any weapons on your person." he replied. Anika looked at him skeptically.

"Where the hell would I hide a weapon in this?" she asked, gesturing to her simple black dress. The smirk deepened on the small man's lips.

"I can think of a few places," he said. He stepped closer to her, causing her to tense even more if that were at all possible. He stepped around her and stood closed behind her; she could feel his breath whispering across her neck. He lifted her arms out to the side and kicked her legs apart with is booted feet almost causing her to almost fall over. She caught herself and held her position rigidly. Much to her relief, he searched her quickly. It was nothing too invasive; just a normal search. When he finished, she dropped her hands to her sides and stepped her legs back together. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief, happy that that the hard part was over.

"Now I'm going to need you to remove your clothing so that I may perform the secondary search." Anika eyes grew wide and she shook her head at him. She wasn't going to do that.

"No." she responded quietly, beginning to back away from him. The man looked at her in frustration.

"You are refusing to comply with my requests?" he asked, though the answer was obvious. She didn't say anything; she only looked at him. She knew that it was unwise of her to argue with this man, but she wouldn't do this. Not for this man she didn't know. When the man realized that she was not going to comply, he turned to the guards and spoke to them.

"Pin sie nieder und Bänder her. Fühlen Sie sich frei, ein wenig rau." he said. At this, the guards smiled and began to move towards Anika. Before she could do anything, they two men had Anika pinned up against a wall, her arms bent awkwardly behind her and her long hair wrapped around one of the men's fists. They tore at her dress and undergarments, exposing her body to the cold of the room and the eyes of her tormentor. They pulled her off of the wall and forced her to face the man. Anika tried to thrash the men off of her until one of them unsheathed their dagger and placed the blade to her throat. She immediately held still from fear of slitting her own throat as the man ran his hands over her naked body. It was obvious that she had no weapons on her, yet the man continued on with his search. She was trembling now and this caused the guards to laugh. Tears built up in her eyes and she found herself unable to hold them back. They slipped out, ran across her temples, and fell into her hair. At the sound of her crying the man looked up at her into her eyes. She glared at him angrily through her tears.

"You shouldn't cry now," he cooed quietly, make her feel sick. "This is only the beginning." he said. With that, he turned on his booted heel and stalked away towards the heavy, iron door of the room. When he had closed it behind him, the men forced Anika down onto her knees before them. She winced in pain as her knees struck the dirty floor. The man holding the blade to her neck began to yell something at her in German. It was so frustrating to her, not knowing what they were saying. The guard continued on, seemingly yelling instructions at her that she couldn't possibly follow.

"I don't fucking speak German!" she exclaimed purely out of stress. At this, the man walked over to the door and exited it. She sat on her knees quietly, unsure of what was happening. Then, the man came back with a dingy, brown cloth sack with four holes of varying sizes cut into it. He threw the bag at Anika and muttered some form of instructions to her. She assumed that he had asked her to put the bag on because the man holding her by the hair released her and stood away from her. She nodded to them both and then collected the bag as well as her brassier and underwear. Quickly, she redressed herself and then stood tall, ready for whatever came next. The guards walked back to her and re-shackled her wrists and legs again before ushering her out of the small room and down a narrow hallway. They turned to their right and led Anika into another small room much like the other one. This one had a chair placed in the middle of the room just underneath a hanging lamp. The guards directed her to the chair and forced her down into it. She sat and glared at the guards. They seemed to be arguing with one another about something. All that she knew was that they were gesturing at her an awful lot before one of them threw his hands up in desperation and set his rifle down. He walked over to Anika and began to remove his dagger from it's sheath. Anika gulped and watched the guard cautiously as he came around behind her. Without saying anything to her, he knotted her hair up in his fist and forced her head down. Her hair was pulled painfully tight and she was sure that he was going to rip it all out. She let out a small groan from the pain; she had taken so many blows to the head today that it felt like her skull was broken in two. The sound seemed to irritate the knife-wielding Nazi as he tightened his grip and forced her head lower. He raised the blade and placed it along the space between his fist and her head. Just as she realized what he intended to do, she felt his dagger slice through her hair. Her eyes opened wide in shock as he tossed the hair he'd cut off to the floor near her feet and picked. Her eyes widened as he picked up another lock of hair and began to saw it off with his dagger. She couldn't move; she couldn't believe what was happening. She'd heard that this sort of thing happened to the Jewish women in the camps, and she now realized that it was just their tactic of torturing female prisoners. Anika sat in quiet shock, unable to move or think about anything as the reality of what was happening set in. It seemed like hours before the man seemed to give up his work halfway through, leaving her hair uneven and choppy. He wiped his dagger clean before re-sheathing it and pulling her up by her chains. Still in her stupor, she followed the men blindly as the led her down another narrow hallway to large room with what appeared to be holding cells. Anika was escorted to one of the cells and thrown in rather hastily. The men quickly unshackled her before muttering something in German and leaving. The guards slammed the barred door closed behind her, causing the sound to echo throughout the large room. At this, she snapped out of her trance and took in her surroundings. There wasn't much within the cell. To her left there was a long, wooden, table-like thing and to her right there was a small bucket. She wrinkled her nose at that, not wanting know what they expected her to use that for. With that, she turned to the wooden stand and sat on its edge, looking down at her shaking and battered hands…


	3. Chapter 2

She laid there and cried until all of her tears had dried up she could cry no more. Then, she took to absentmindedly nibbling on her thumb nail, making sure to keep her thoughts on anything but her current situation. She found this task to be difficult, but it didn't stop her from trying. Fifteen minutes into her meditation, a loud noise sounded throughout the jail. Anika sat up and turned her attention to the outside of her cell as a chorus of yelling filled the room. She could hear heavy footsteps approaching and the angry, German voices only began to grow louder. As she leaned forward to search out the source of the noise, two Nazis came in escorting another of them who was shackled much like she was previously. This man had a chain wrapped around his neck and the soldiers used it to control and direct him to his cell. Anika couldn't really see the man's face and she wondered what treasonous act this Nazi could have committed that had gotten him locked in this prison with her. The Nazis forced the man into the cell to her right, though not with much ease she noted. This brought a smile to her lips; it pleased to see that someone else was raising a little hell during their stay.

The soldiers managed to get the man into his cell after a long bout of fighting. During this entire ordeal, the Nazi prisoner hadn't said one word. The most she'd heard from him was a few grunts as he attempted to, in vain, thrash the guards from him. The soldiers who had brought him in turned their attention to the guards and gave them some amount of orders. The usually stone-faced guards looked shocked as they turned to observe their newest prisoner.

"Das ist er?" one of the guards asked the soldiers. They nodded and rambled on about the prisoner. It was then that Anika wished she spoke German. At least then she could known why the guards were so shocked by her neighbor. Finding that her ear hustling was non-beneficial, she decided to go back to her nail biting. It seemed like it'd be a much better way to pass the time.

Time seemed to pass by slowly as seemingly day-long hours chugged along at less than a snail's pace. There were no windows in the prison as she assumed they were still underground and this disallowed Anika the ability to tell what time of day it was. She had laid back down on the bed at some point in time. It was probably at that point that she began to plot her escape. She assumed that the Nazis would have to reopen her cell door whether it was to feed her or to beat her. She figured that she could attack one of the guards and get his gun away from him, maybe a knife. Once she did that, she'd kill the other guard and make grand escape…Who was she kidding? She wasn't nearly strong enough to overpower a well trained soldier. Even if she could, she'd never fired a gun or stabbed anything. She sat up with a long sigh and lowered her head into her hands. She didn't know what to do. "Lost" was one way of describing how she felt; then again, so was "scared shitless". She found herself doing what she always did when she was nervous or stressed: she whistled. She started of feebly at first, weary that the guards would hassle her for whistling, but then smoothed out the further she got into the song. Eventually, she laid back down, finally feeling better. She continued to whistle until something banged loudly against the bars of her cell. She bolted upright to see what was happening and found one of the guards standing just outside of her cell with a gun pointed at her. She put her hands up instinctively to show that she meant no harm.

"Sei ruhig oder ich dir den Kopf wegblasen!" he said to her, his dark brown eyes narrowed at her. She looked at him in confusion and he sighed, lowering his gun a bit. He lifted his left hand and gestured to her. She nodded her understanding and he raised a finger to his lips, signifying silence. She nodded again before he gestured to himself, then his gun, then back to her. Her eyes widened as she completely understood his threat.

"Oui." she responded, speaking French mostly out of instinct. The soldier glared at her for a moment longer before turning on his heel and returning to his post a small ways from her. Anika let out the breath that she was holding and let her hands fall into her lap. This is going to be a long night, she thought to herself.

More hours seemed to fade away into nothingness as Anika took to playing solo games of Tic-Tac-Toe in a pile of dust beside her bed. It was as she was celebrating her fifty-fourth win against herself that the guards had begun to engage in conversation with one another. She turned her attention to them and saw that they had been joined by three other soldiers. All five of the men talked and laughed together about some subject Anika knew nothing of. Anika sat at the edge of her "bed" trying to decipher their words. She had learned that the word "ich" seemed to imply oneself, so it must have been the equivalent to "I". Still, knowing only when the men were talking about themselves didn't help her in the least bit.

One of the men produced from his jacket pocket a pack of cigarettes. He administered one to each of the men around him and allowed them to use his lighter to ignite their cigarettes. Anika looked at them longingly, wanting very badly to have a smoke. She had quit smoking just before she moved to France, but she felt that her stress contributed to her desire to smoke again. The soldier who had provided the cigarettes seemed to notice Anika as he gestured to her while inquiring something to his comrades. All five of the men looked at her now with intrigued smiles that sent shivers down her spine. One of her guards seemed to explain something to the newcomers and they all laughed at whatever he had said. Though Anika wanted to say something, she refrained from doing so and chose to glare at them instead. The soldiers then turned their attention to the cell beside her with the same amount of interest that they had shown her. The same soldier inquired again and this time gestured to the Nazi prisoner. The guards didn't turn around, but she could sense it from their demeanor that the subject of this man made them distraught. At the response of the guard, all of the men's faces turned to shock as they turned to look at her neighbor.

"Das ist Hugo Stiglitz? Ihn?" the soldier asked in a quiet voice as though he didn't want the Nazi prisoner to hear him. The guard nodded in response and the soldier cast his gaze back over to the man with a small, mischievous smirk. After a moment, he made his way towards the prisoner's cell and the others followed him cautiously. Anika stood up and watched them curiously as the men stood just outside of the prisoner's cell with curious eyes. They reminded her of children at a zoo looking into the gorilla exhibit. They muttered quietly to the Nazi prisoner; Anika couldn't tell if they were taunting him or if they were simply speaking to the man. Whatever was being said, the prisoner didn't respond to a word of it. She was beginning to wonder whether or not he was even alive in there when two arms reached out of the cage and pulled one of the soldiers forward. The startled soldier let out a pitiful yelp as a strong hand reached up towards his face and removed the cigarette from his mouth. The guards had raised their weapons and began to yell at the prisoner, obviously threatening him and ordering him to release their squirming friend. Without so much as word, the Nazi prisoner released the soldier who fell to the ground. The soldier scooted away from the cell quickly, making sure to get out of reach. Anika found herself struggling to stifle a laugh as she retreated back onto her bed. The group of Nazis collected their friend from the ground before rushing back to their former positions. The group began to tease the soldier who had been grabbed and he attempted to laugh it off. She could tell by the way his laugh sounded so forced that he was still unnerved, but he was the tough guy type. He wouldn't go out like the little girl she knew was in him.

Anika fell back into thoughts of escape as the group of Nazis fell back into conversation. It occurred to her that these men had to sleep at some point. She wasn't sure if they would simply switch shifts with another group of guards or if these were the ones she was stuck with, but she knew that they'd have to leave eventually. That would be the time when she made her escape. True, the thought was irrational, but her common sense had become dulled with exhaustion and stress. Anika sat up and peered outside of her cell. The men seemed to be occupied enough not to pay much attention to Anika. At that, she stood up and began to check the cell for any weak spots. She ran her aching hands over the dingy tiles of the walls around her, feeling out any loose pieces she could pry up. Finding that act to be fruitless, she walked over to the bars of her cell quietly. She checked to make sure that no one still was paying any attention to her before wrapping her small hands around two of the bars and tugging on them, testing how well they were in place. The bars didn't move an inch, so she tried another set and hung onto them using her full weight to pull on the bars. As she tried a third set of bars, her hands slipped and she fell painfully onto her rear. She sat there for a moment, glaring at the bars and resenting them for performing their intended duty. She stood up again and wrapped her hands around another set of bars, positive that there had to be a weak spot somewhere. Just as she was about to pull, a low growl escaped from the cell beside her, halting her where she was.

"Sie sollten einfach aufzugeben." growled the Nazi prisoner. She quickly looked towards his cell in amazement. In all the time they had been there, she hadn't heard him utter one word. She looked towards the guards to see if they had noticed before she responded. They were still wrapped up in their conversation.

"What did you say?" she asked quietly, pressing her face against the bars in hopes of seeing the prisoner. "I don't speak German." she added with mild annoyance. She really hoped that he spoke English. If he didn't, she could sense it that she would tire of him quickly if he was going to continue speaking to her.

"I said," he began in his same growl. "That you should give up. These prisons are built with the intent of keeping us in." he finished. Anika cast a look of disdain in his direction, though she knew that he couldn't see it. She stood up straight again, removing her face from the bars, and then set her hands again on another set of bars.

"Well I, unlike you, haven't simply given in to the fact that I'm going to rot and die in here. So, if you'll excuse me." she muttered harshly before tugging on the bars again. The prisoner grew silent as she quietly tested all of the bars before her. On the last set, she tugged with all her might to no avail. Finally exhausted, she leaned back on the bars with a defeated sigh. She stretched her hands painfully and observed the red marks she'd developed along the fleshy places of her palms. **At least these are self-inflicted**, she thought bitterly to herself. She closed her hands and lowered them to her sides.

She sat like that quietly and observed the puffs of smoke escaping the prisoner's cell beside her. This only caused her to want a cigarette even more now that it was this close to her. She wondered if this man would be generous enough to share what little bit of cigarette he had left with her. She figured that it was worth a shot.

"Hey, Mister. You think you can send that cigarette my way? Some of us don't have the luxury of brute force to get what we need around here." she said. The prisoner remained silent and it occurred to Anika that she was probably coming off as a bit rude. She sighed and swallowed down her all ready dwindling pride before speaking again.

"Look, I don't mean to be a bitch, it's just I'm really stressed out right now and I could use a smoke." she explained. The prisoner remained silent still and she wondered whether or not he was ignoring her now. Just as she was about retreat to her bed again, the prisoner flicked the cigarette out between the bars of his cell onto the ground just outside of Anika's. With a smile, she reached out and picked up the small, white roll on the ground before it could burn out. Placing it to her lips, she took a long drag on the cigarette. She welcomed the sweet spicy smoke into her lungs and let it slowly, savoring the sensation. She stood up straight and turned to face the prisoner as best she could. She still couldn't see him, but she figured that he was just out of her eye line.

"Thanks for the fag." she said quietly, her Chicago accent slipping through with this phrase. She received no response and sat back down on her bed to smoke. The two remained silent for a while until Anika finished her cigarette and threw the butt onto the ground, feeling much calmer than she had before. She took to tapping her fingers on the edge of her bed in boredom until she decided to speak to the prisoner again.

"I'm Anika Foster, by the way." she muttered. She rolled her eyes at herself. The introduction seemed so stupid, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. The prisoner remained silent, so Anika started to assume again that he was ignoring her. With a slight shrug of the shoulders, she laid back down onto her bed and began to think about what people would say when they realized she was gone. She wondered if they knew what had happened to her, if the Nazis had informed her friends that she was taken prisoner as an "American spy". She wondered if Giselle or Luc would believe that having known Anika for years…

"Hugo." growled the prisoner, breaking through Anika's thoughts. She looked at the wall between their cells as though it were him.

"What?" she asked, confused. What the hell was a "Hugo"?

"My name is Hugo Stiglitz." he replied in an unpleasant tone. She assumed that that may have been his only tone of voice.

"It's nice to meet you, Hugo Stiglitz." she replied politely, happy that she'd developed some sort of small talk with this man. He didn't respond again and Anika hadn't expected him to. She was content with the fact that she at least knew the name of her neighbor. Hugo Stiglitz. His name was actually quite fun for her to say which she thought was unbecoming of him, for he was an unusually surly guy. But, then again, he was thrown into a prison for god-knows-what. She understood that and decided that he had a right to be grumpy. With that thought in mind, she rolled over onto her side facing the wall between herself and Hugo with the intent of sleeping as much as she could. She closed her eyes and curled into a ball on the wooden cot. She mouthed Hugo's name one last time before drifting off to sleep with a smile on her face.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry this is late. I had a little trouble writing this one; it's been a tough week, but I'm delivering. I haven't had time to proofread this one, but I'm twenty minutes away from taking a test in my Critical Thinking class (that's college for ya). Sorry for any mistakes that may be here. I just want to thank you all for the positive reviews. It keeps me motivated to keep going. I'd also like to thank one of my best friends Cheyenne for helping me out on the hardest parts. You kept Hellstrom alive. All right. Read and enjoy! Review, please!!!!**

Anika awoke the next day to someone grabbing her by the arm and shaking her violently. She barely had time to open her eyes before she was dragged from her bed and thrown to the ground. She landed on her back with a thud before she looked up at the guard. He gazed down at her unsympathetically with a pair of simple handcuffs dangling from his fingers. She rolled her eyes at him without sitting up.

"You pricks ever heard of 'good morning'?" she asked, knowing he couldn't understand her. He motioned for her to stand up and she did so, ignoring the protests of her tired and abused body. She stood up slowly which apparently angered the guard for he grabbed her and threw her hard against the wall opposite her bed. She let out a hiss of pain as her cheek slammed painfully against the dingy tile of wall. The guard let out a small chuckle as he shackled her wrists together. With that, he yanked her away from the wall and guided her out of her cell, his Walter pressed in between her shoulder blades. She attempted to look into Hugo's cell as they walked past it, but the guard smacked her in the back of the head and yelled at her. She imagined that he was telling her to keep her eye forward. She did as she thought she was told and allowed herself to be taken down another of the hallways within the jail. This one wasn't quite as narrow as the previous hallway and she wondered where she was being taken. He walked her halfway down the hallway before turning her into a room to her left. The room was large, open, and just as dirty as the rest of the jail. The room was empty save for a large wooden post in the direct center of the room, a large basin filled with water just in front of it, and a lone chair against the left wall of the room. The guard directed her to the basin and forced her to kneel down before it. Her knees smacked down hard against the ground, but she made sure not to show her pain. The guard placed the barrel of his gun against the back of her head, making sure that she would not move. She held rigidly still and waited for whatever was to come next. She cast her gaze down to the tub before her. It was filled three quarters of the way full with water. She wondered what they planned to do with it. She was certain that they weren't going to give her a bath. Whatever they planned to do, she hoped that they'd do it quickly. Just as that thought passed through her mind, footsteps sounded behind alerting her to a newcomer. The newcomer spoke to her guard in German and the voice sounded vaguely familiar to her. She shifted her gaze as far over to her left as she could, hoping to glimpse a look at her new guest. All she could see was the bottom of a long, black coat and a pair of black boots. The men continued their conversation for a short while before the guard behind Anika holstered his weapon and then stalked to the back of the room. Before Anika could make a move to look at the newcomer, he spoke to her.

"Hello, Ms. Foster." said a cool voice in English butchered by a German accent. Now that he was speaking English, she recognized him to be none other than Major Dieter Hellstrom, the man that had gotten her thrown into this prison. She went completely rigid with fear. She had never really feared him before this moment, but something about his presence now shook her took the very core. Hellstrom walked in front of her now and she made no attempt to look at him. She kept her eyes down and focused on the depths of the water within the basin. She could see the top of his boots at the point where his pants were tucked neatly inside of them. She could feel his cold, blue-grey gaze boring into the back of her skull as he waited for her to look at him. When he realized that she was not going to do so, he kneeled down before her and placed a hand underneath her chin. He lifted her head up so that he could see her bruised face, but she kept her eyes down. She couldn't look at him. She felt as though she would shatter into a million pieces if she looked into the eyes of the devil before her.

"What's the matter, Anika?" he began. "Are you too afraid to look at me now?" She could hear the smile on his voice, and it caused the anger to rise within her. Though she was still fearful, her fury at this man gave her the strength to raise her eyes from the dark water to his light eyes. A smile played on his pink lips and she felt an urge to smack that smile from his lips. If only her hands weren't tied behind her back…she would tear into that man's face with everything that she had. Instead, she chose to glare at him, her jaw clenched and set to keep her from spitting in his face.

After a long moment of silence between the two of them, he released her and stood up straight. She watched him as he began to slip his arms from the sleeves of his long, black trench coat. He crossed to the left side of the room, where the chair was, and tossed his coat across the seat. He then proceeded to remove his black, military jacket and tossed that on top of his coat before he unbuttoned the sleeves of his tan dress shirt and rolled them up to his elbows. His eyes never left Anika as he did this and she never once looked away from him. The smile still lingered on his lips as he came back to the basin and stood beside Anika now. She looked up at him and his smile widened before he spoke.

"Anika Foster, I will now proceed in our investigation of your acts of espionage by attempting to extract what information I can from you." he said robotically, as though he had rehearsed this line many times. Before she could say anything in response, Hellstrom crushed his fingers into her short hair and forced her head down towards the water. He didn't submerge her face, but he put her close enough that she could feel the cold rising off of the surface of the water.

"Are you under the employment of the United States Army as an espionage agent?" he asked, amusement dripping through his voice. Anika clenched her jaw, her mind set on not giving him any information. She owed this man nothing, therefore she would give him nothing. Deciding that she had hesitated to long, he dunked her head into the depths of the cold water and held it down as she tried to, in vain, lift her head up from the basin. The water was frigid and it assaulted her chest as small amounts of it traveled up her nose and down her throat into her lungs. Her legs thrashed about beneath her as she tried to stand, but he proved to be much stronger than she. Her chest felt as though it was going to explode and just as she began to think that it would, Hellstrom pulled her head up out of the depths of the water. Air flooded into her burning lungs causing her to cough up the cold liquid that filled them. Hellstrom let out a chuckle beside her.

"Let's try this again, shall we? Are you working for the United States Army as a spy?" he asked, his voice dripping with amusement. She glared at him. He knew damn well that she was no spy. The smile on his face said it all. Still, he was going to interrogate her anyways, if not for the sheer fact that he had to keep up appearances. Anika kept her mouth shut, resolving to keep quiet again. She would not give him what he wanted. With a smirk, he forced her head back down into the water. He held her down long enough for the imminent feeling of death to come over her again and then he pulled her back out of the water. Again, she coughed and sputtered, and he waited until she caught her breath before speaking again.

"Now, I'm going to ask you again and I suggest that you answer me before you drown to death." he said, his smile widening still. "Are you acting as a spy for the United States Army? Yes or no?" he asked. For a moment, Anika considered keeping quiet, but she didn't doubt that he would drown her in that bucket.

"No." she said quietly. He leaned in closer to her.

"What was that, my dear?" he asked.

"I said 'no'." she responded, this time more loudly. He leaned away from her again and appeared to be pondering this answer. Then, without warning, he forced her head back down into the depths of the water. He didn't submerge her for long, but she did have trouble catching he breath again when he lifted her head out of the water.

"What the hell was that for?" she asked between sputters. Snot was beginning to run from her nose as well as saliva from her mouth. She wanted so badly to wipe it away, but she could not do so with her hands locked behind her back.

"That, my dearest Anika, was for lying to me." he replied. She shot him a look of incredulousness. It was as if he was starting to believe his own lie.

"Are you insane?" she asked, her chest heaving as she gasped in air. He continued to smile at her; she swore she'd knock that smile off of his face one day.

"Quite the contrary. Now, I will ask you again. Are you a spy for the American Army?" he asked. She looked away from him.

"No, you Gerry fuck! There's not too many other ways I can say it!" she yelled. This only got her another dunk in the bucket, and this time it was much longer than the last three times. When he pulled her back up, he allowed her to cough up several lungfulss of water before he turned her head towards him and forced her to look at him. She painfully took in huge breaths of air as he ran his eyes over her beaten and fluid covered face.

"You don't look so good, Anika." he said quietly, that same sick smile on his face. She huffed out a short breathed laugh before letting her eyes traverse his face.

"Mieux que quelques-uns." _(Better than some.) _she said, her indication clear. She could see from his clenched jaw that he was angered by her words, though he kept his smile in place. This caused Anika to smile as well. She liked it when she got under his skin. He, apparently, did not. Angrily, he tightened his grip on her hair and wrenched her forward so that his mouth was close to her ear. She could feel his hot breath whispering across her ear, making her want so badly to turn away from him.

"You should consider telling me what I want to hear before you drown in this basin." he whispered to her icily. His words sent shivers down her spine, but her resolve did not burn away. She smiled and shifted her head slightly so that her lips were near his ear.

"Kiss. My. Ass." she whispered. They were both silent for a moment. Anika wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but Hellstrom made sure that she found out. Very suddenly, he wrenched her head back, and smashed it back down into the water. The force of her face smacking against the water made her head spin. She immediately gasped as a sort of reflex and was met by cold water filling her lungs. Again, she thrashed her legs about as she tried with all her might to stand. She thought she might dislocate her shoulders from the way she was attempting to break the shackles apart so she could claw at Hellstrom to release her. Still, he was relentless in his grip on her. **He's going drown me, **she thought as fear washed over her. She feebly tried to break free of his grip as a cold darkness crept over her. She felt as though her mind was shutting down and her limbs slowly lost feeling. She tried to keep alive as everything within her slowed and shut down. Then, there was nothing…

_Whip-CRACK!…Whip-CRACK! Whip-CRACK! _A strange noise was breaking through the void… _Whip-CRACK! _It was a loud noise…it sounded like something cutting through the air and then making contact with a hard surface…_Whip-CRACK! _

**What the hell is that? **Anika thought to herself. Slowly, she peeled her eyes open. She found that she was back in her cell, her soaking wet hair sticking to her forehead. She reached a hand up to her face to find it still covered in mucus and spit, much to her disgust. Very carefully, she sat up, her body aching everywhere. She attempted to hiss in pain only to have herself fall into a very nasty coughing spell. When she had finally regained her ability to breathe (if only a little), she wiped her face on her dirty potato sack and then turned her attention back to the strange noise that had woken her from unconsciousness. Listening to it with a ow focused mind, she identified it to be the sound of a whip cracking. Against what, she did not know, and she knew that she didn't really want or need to know. She sat on the edge of her bed, breathing in with a conscious effort before a thought struck her. The whipping sounded as though it was coming form the same room that she was tortured in. That could only mean one thing to her. Slowly as to not agitate her burning lungs, she stood up and made her way to the bars of her cell. She observed that only one of the guards remained in the room outside of the cells and she wondered where the other one was. The remaining guard seemed to be immersed quite thoroughly in the newspaper that he was reading.

"Hugo." she whispered, hoping to hear his voice and counter the thought that was lingering on her mind. Hugo did not respond to her, and for once she hoped that he was ignoring her.

"Hugo!" she said, this time a bit louder. He still did not answer her. Just as she was about to call his name again, the guard before her looked up from his paper at her. He had a look of sheer annoyance written on his face.

"Er ist nicht drin." he said. Anika looked at him with a look of frustration mixed with confusion. Again with the German. When would they ever learn? She shook her head at him.

"I don't know what you're saying to me." she said. This time, the guard looked at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes at him. She lifted her hands up and gestured to herself before pointing to him, then moving her hand to signify talking, and then shrugged to show her confusion. The guard rolled his eyes at her and then went back to reading his paper, ignoring her completely. Anika sighed lightly and turned her back to the guard.

"Stupide, sans cervelle connard." _(Stupid, brainless asshole.) _she muttered to herself before retreating back to her bed. She sat down on the edge of her bed, her thoughts now back on what was happening to her stoic neighbor. **That's Hugo in there being whipped, **she thought to herself. This simple thought made her body fill with fear. Not for herself, but for her jailhouse companion. She had witnessed firsthand the cruelty of the Nazi regime. She tried to ignore the sound of the whip, but the noise seemed to fill the air and her mind. She couldn't get her mind off of the fact that Hugo was in that room being whipped for God knew what. She noted that as the whip collided with what she assumed to be his bare skin, Hugo didn't utter a sound. She wondered how he could do that, stay quite through all of that pain. She knew that she'd be screaming and crying. But then again, from what she knew of this soldier, silence was something he did very well. It only made sense for him to remain so, even during something like this. The whip sounded again and Anika clapped her hands over her ears. She didn't want to hear this.

The whipping continued for what seemed like hours to Anika. It was probably only a few minutes more in reality. The remaining guard was called into the room, much to his dismay. He placed his paper on the small table that was set up behind him and then made his way into the torture room. Anika stood up carefully again and watched the Nazi walk away and turn left into the room. The sound of chains rattling poured out of the room and then both guards emerged carting a very weak looking Hugo Stiglitz. His blonde-capped head was lowered and his feet dragged along the ground as though his legs had gone numb. Anika couldn't see much of him, even with her face pressed against the bars, but she could see the blood coating his bare back and spattered along his sides. Instantly, the instincts she thought she had long since lost came back into play. She watched in horror as the guards dragged Hugo back into his cell and unshackled him. She saw both guards emerge from his cell, one carrying the chains they had used to bind Hugo. They both returned to their usual posts on either side of the room and then engaged in a small conversation. Anika, still worried about Hugo, turned to look into his cell. Again, she couldn't see the man inside, but she could hear him shuffling around. She cast a quick glance at the guards before resolving to speak to Hugo.

"Hugo? Are you okay?" she asked quietly so that only the two of them would hear. He didn't answer her, which is something she expected but would not accept. Not with him in the condition he was in.

"Hugo?" she asked again, hoping that he could hear the desperation in her whisper. He was bleeding a lot and she had no way of knowing whether or not the wounds were deep enough to cause big problems. Hugo ignored her still and she was beginning to think that he had passed out.

"Hugo, please just let me know that you're not bleeding to death in there." she said, this time with a stern voice. There was silence still and she was beginning to think the worst when a growl escaped from the cell beside her.

"I'm all right." he replied quietly. Anika breathed a huge sigh of relief and slunk back into her cell. She leaned against the wall between her and Hugo with a small smile.

"Now, was that so hard to say?" she asked jokingly. Hugo remained silent and Anika rolled her eyes at this. **I should probably just get used to this, **she thought. At that, she took to pacing her cell, thinking. Escape was still on her mind, but every plan she came up with had a sizable flaw in it somewhere which forced her to discard the thought and move onto another. She was deep in thought when another growl sounded from the man next door.

"What about you?" he asked. Anika halted and turned to the wall with a look of confusion.

"Excuse me?" she asked, not understanding what he was trying to say. Hugo was silent before he spoke again.

"Are you all right?" he asked, seemingly hesitant. This type of question seemed awkward and foreign to him. Almost as though he were speaking another language. Anika smiled at this, appreciating the fact that he put himself in that despite the fact that it made him uncomfortable.

"I'm fine, thanks. I don't think I'll need a drink for a long time, but…" she trailed off with a small laugh.

"Good." he replied just as awkwardly as before and then fell back into silence. Anika went back to the front of her cell and leaned against the bars lazily. Prison was an extremely boring, miserable place. She couldn't find anything to do to entertain herself. **I guess that's the point, **she thought to herself. Nodding to herself and closing her eyes, she leaned her head against the bars. They felt cool against her hot skin and she wondered whether she was beginning to catch something. Her head was pounding which could only be expected from all the bumps and bangs it had taken as well as the loss of oxygen from her waterboarding. Her mind flashed back to the image of Hellstrom smiling at her as he drowned her in that black bucket of water. Anger rose up within her again and she fought it down. It would do her no good to be angry at someone who wasn't anywhere near her. As that thought passed through her head, cigarette smoke drifted into her nostrils causing her to open her eyes. On the ground before her was a full, lit cigarette, its embers burning a bright orange against the white paper. Cautiously, she bent to pick it up, looking around to see where it had come from. The guards didn't appear to notice that the cigarette had appeared at all. She looked to Hugo's cell to see puffs of smoke rising up and misting away to nothing. Again, a smile graced her face. Bringing the cigarette to her lips, she took a drag slowly to see if she would be able to smoke. Much to her surprise, the smoke soothed her aching lungs as opposed to setting them ablaze. Thankful, she took another drag on the cigarette.

"Thank you." she said to Hugo. His only response was a wordless growl which she took as his equivalent to "you're welcome". Leaning with her back to the bars, she smoked away at her cigarette. At some point, the guards seemed to notice that Anika and Hugo had somehow gotten a hold of the smokes. For a moment, they looked as though they were going to come forward and take the cigarettes. However, a quick glance at Hugo seemed to change their mind. Anika smiled again. They all knew what that man would do for a cigarette.

"Where'd you get these anyways?" she asked, wondering aloud what the guards were probably thinking. Hugo was silent for a moment before he answered.

"Among many other things I may be, I am also a very talented pit pocket." he growled out with little emotion.

"You know, normally I'd lecture you about stealing, but I think I can make an exception in this case…so long as I continually benefit from it." she said. Hugo was silent again, and Anika was okay with that. She wanted a moment to enjoy her cigarette in peace.

Anika looked up the ceiling as she smoked and absentmindedly tapped out a beat on her foot. She wasn't really thinking about anything at the moment which was a nice reprieve from the dark thoughts she'd been carrying earlier. Quietly, she began to hum out a tune to herself before taking to singing just as quietly. She wasn't surprised to hear Charles Trenét's "La Romance de Paris" escaping her lips. She had come around to the chorus when another growl interrupted her.

"You speak French?" Hugo asked, this time his voice filled with genuine surprise. Anika turned back around so that she was looking outside of the cell again. She took another drag on the cigarette before responding again.

"Oui, Monsieur Stiglitz. Je ne parle français." _(Yes, Mr. Stiglitz. I do speak French.) _she responded.

"Why do you speak French if you're an American?" he asked, the sound of genuine interest still laced within his growling voice.

"Well, why do you speak English if you're a German?" she asked. Hugo fell silent and Anika felt bad for the way she had responded. It was rude to answer in such a manner; she had just become so used to hiding a lot about herself from everyone. With a sigh and another drag on the cigarette, she decided to properly explain.

"My grandparents on both of my parents sides are from France. They speak French as do my parents and so do my three brothers and I. I'm the youngest. Junior, he's the oldest. Then came Larry, and then John, and then me. Each one of us speaks French and English. I think Larry speaks a little Italian as well…" she trailed off, realizing that she was rambling. She stood up straight and took a final drag on the cigarette before flicking the butt to the floor and watching its embers die out. She hadn't realized how much she missed her family before this moment. An overwhelming sadness crept over her and, before she would be consumed by it, she changed the subject between the two of them.

"So, what got you thrown into this prison, if you don't mind me asking?" Anika asked. This time, Hugo didn't hesitate for one second before responding.

"I killed thirteen Gestapo majors." he said proudly. Anika looked at the wall incredulously.

"What?" she asked, though she heard him well.

"I said that I killed-"

"I heard what you said. I guess I mean…how?" she asked. Very quickly, Hugo explained in great detail the ways in which he killed all thirteen of his victims. Anika thought that she should be sickened by the gorey way that Hugo explained these events, but she found instead that she was amazed. In fact, she was intrigued. Her favorite was they way that he shoved his fist down one of their throats all the way to the elbow. She laughed at that, catching him by surprise and causing him to continue on with greater gusto. She listened like a child listening to a bedtime story and soaked in every detail of the torture he inflicted upon the Nazi scum. When he finished, he fell silent again, leaving her with thoughts of Nazi murder. With a shake of her head, she cleared her mind of those thoughts and sat back down on the edge of her bed. They sat in silence for a long while before Anika decided to speak again.

"So…what'd you do before the war?" she asked. Hugo was silent again. Though she could see him, she could tell that he was tense, as though she'd said something wrong. She felt as though she say something, apologize, but she didn't know if that was good.

"Hugo, I-"

"Goodnight, Anika." he growled, finalizing their silence. Anika looked down at her hands, ashamed that she had upset Hugo so much. But there was nothing she could do about it now. She decided to let him cool off. She'd try him again tomorrow. With that, she laid back down on her bed, content and ready to sleep. She closed her eyes and fell into sleep riddled with sweet dreams of dying Nazis.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Wow. It's been a while, huh? I'm so sorry this is so, so late. I've had a lot of things come up and I haven't had time to write. I feel awful for making you all wait so long. Thank you all for being so patient and thank you for all the reviews. You keep me inspired to write. You can expect the next chapter sometime next weekend. It's expected to be a really long one which I think will make up for how long I've made you wait. So, without further delay, please enjoy chapter 4 of "Goodbye, My Love" ^.^**

Anika spit out a mouthful of blood and looked up just as another fist came flying towards her face again. The force of the blow threw her entire body to the side, causing her to fall over onto her side. For a moment, all she could do was lay there as her vision burned red and her head spun. She laid on the ground until the waves of dizziness subsided. Then, very slowly, she curled up into herself, tucking her legs beneath her and lifting herself from the ground using only her legs. She'd gotten used to not using her hands during her nearly week long sentence in the Nazi prison. She glared defiantly at her captors. The man who had delivered the blow, one of her guards she learned to be named "Schmidt", had come to work alongside Major Hellstrom during her interrogations. Basically, Hellstrom asked the questions while Schmidt gave her the incentive to answer. Anika continued to stare at the men with insolence. She had still given Hellstrom no useful information. After her first interrogation, Anika had decided not to say anything at all to Hellstrom, save for some small, smart-mouthed comments. If he wasn't going to accept the truth, then she'd give him nothing at all.

Dieter walked up to her, a cold look of frustration plastered over his pale face. He reached out and grabbed her harshly by her chin, causing a sharp plume of pain to spread throughout her cheek. She flinched momentarily before smoothing the wince out of her features. She would not allow her pain to be his pleasure.

"Enough with the stoicism, Anika. You're little charade is beginning to bore me." he said icily. She smirked; she was beginning to get under his skin.

"Maybe you're not trying hard enough, Dieter dear." she said, a small laugh in her voice. Hellstrom's eyebrows arched in anger and he threw her from him. He gave instructions to Schmidt who proceeded to wrench Anika up from the ground. She was still laughing, which got her a sharp knee in the back of her thigh from Schmidt. The blow was painful, and she fought to ignore it. With that, Schmidt began to shuffle her out of the seemingly designated torture room and back to her cell. She was thankful for this and complied as much as possible; she didn't know how much more of that interrogation she could have endured. When they reached her cell, Schmidt unshackled her and threw her harshly inside, slamming the door close behind her. Anika waited until he was out of her line of sight before falling to the ground in a messy heap. She was exhausted and in constant pain from her many varying forms of torture. Aside from the water boarding and the good old-fashioned beatings, she had been subjected to whippings as well. She often found herself wondering whether or not they had any other ways of harming her, or if they were just limited in this prison. Then again, the fact they were starving her was probably another method of theirs. They only ever gave her water, making sure to keep her alive for as long as possible. She hadn't used the water to drink so much as she used it to clean her numerous open wounds; she didn't want to develop any sort of infection in this place.

Looking over to her left, she could see that there was still a little water left in the bowl they had provided her with. Crawling over to the bowl, she dipped a cupped hand into it and splashed the cool liquid over her bloodied, swollen face. It stung a bit, the way her hands brushed across her skin, but she knew she had to clean the blood from her face. She tenderly touched her nose as she wiped away the blood spurting from it. She was surprised that it hadn't been broken yet. It seemed that every time she was taken out for a grilling, Schmidt managed to slug her real good in the nose without fail, and then it was bleeding for hours after that. Luckily for her, it seemed that it was all ready done bleeding for the night.

She continued to wipe her face until she could feel no more thick blood running through her fingers. Looking down at the bowl, she found that she had turned its contents completely red. She was bleeding a lot worse than she had originally thought. Wrapping her hand around one of the bars on her cell, she slowly pulled herself up, ignoring the lightheadedness that came with the action. She staggered over to her bed and sat down, taking in deep breaths to aid her ailing head. When she felt as though she had calmed down enough, she stood up again and walked back to the front of her cell, closer to the right.

"Guten Abend, Hugo." _(Good evening, Hugo.) _she said to her jail mate. The guards looked up at her with mild surprise.

As per her request, Hugo had begun to teach Anika a little bit of conversational German a few nights ago. She had tried to teach him French in return, but they found out quickly that he had no tongue for it. She, on the other hand, was exceptional at German. She didn't know much, but what she did know, she committed to memory. She would learn the language of her foes, if only a little. She smiled at the guards as Hugo shuffled around in his cell.

"Guten Abend, Anika."Hugo replied in his usual growl. Anika could hear the tell tale sounds of Hugo lighting up a cigarette and she began to wait patiently for hers. This too had become a ritual for them. Mostly, their nights consisted of having a smoke, speaking what little German they could together, talking about random little things, and then sitting in complete and utter silence until one of them said "good night" to the other. The guards had come to accept the fact that the two of them were going to smoke and talk. Anika liked to think that it was because they feared Hugo.

As usual, Hugo flicked the lit cigarette to the ground just outside of her cell. They had learned that he had no other way of getting the cigarette to her; he could not reach her by simply reaching out of his cell. Very carefully, she lowered herself to the ground and picked up the cigarette. She placed the white roll between her lips and used both of her arms to hoist herself up from the floor. She winced as her tender muscles stretched and pulled beneath the bruised skin on her thighs. When she was fully erect, she leaned against the wall between her cell and Hugo's. Taking a calming drag on the cigarette, she waited for the shaking in her knees to subside before she sat down on the edge of her bed with a sigh.

"So, Hugo. What's the German lesson for tonight?" she asked, bringing the cigarette back up to her lips. Hugo was quiet for a moment, and Anika hoped he was thinking of something to teach her, not ignoring her.

"What would you like to learn?" he asked her back. Anika thought about this for a moment. She had learned how to say most of the usual conversational pieces. She knew how to say "hello", she knew how to say "good morning". She knew how to say "my name is" and ask for the name of others, but there was nothing really that she wanted to know. She racked her brain, trying to think simple words she'd even like to know.

"Well, how would you say 'mother', 'father', and 'brother'?" she asked, not thinking too much about the words themselves. She figured they'd do her good seeing as she had at least one of all of those things.

"Mother is 'Mutter', father is 'Vater', and brother is 'Bruder'. If you wish to say more than one brother, you say 'Brüder'." he replied. She repeated the words to herself for a moment.

"That's not hard to remember at all." she said with a slight smile.

"No. Not at all." he replied absentmindedly, seemingly lost in his thoughts. She always wondered what a person like Hugo thought about, especially now about those particular words. She considered, for a moment, asking him what was on his mind, but she thought better of it. So many nights, she had caused him to shut down when she asked him anything about his past. Maybe this would do the same. Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she turned her thoughts back to their German lesson hoping to distract him from his thoughts.

"So, how would you say 'I have three brothers.'?" she asked. Hugo sighed.

"Ich habe drei Brüder." he said. She repeated the line to herself again.

"How do I say 'Their names are Gregory, Lawrence, and Johnathan'?" she asked.

"Ihre Namen sind Gregory, Lawrence, und Johnathan." he replied. She repeated this line as well. She proceeded to ask Hugo how to say certain words and phrases until she noticed two men entering the larger room outside of their cells. They appeared to be guards as well and the men spoke calmly and quietly with Schmidt. After a short conversation, Schmidt nodded and then turned towards the cells behind him. Anika noticed immediately that he was heading for her cell, but she could not figure out in her mind why that would be. Out of habit, Anika stood up and dropped her cigarette to the ground. She placed her hands behind her back as she waited for Schmidt to enter her cell and shackle her. Schmidt locked the metal loops around Anika's thin wrists and then nudged her forward, his hand gun pressed firmly between her shoulder blades. Anika didn't put up a fight; she was still exhausted from her beating earlier in the day. However, she did move forward cautiously when she realized that, instead of moving towards the torture room, they walked past it through the large room and turned left down another hallway. Anika hesitated for a moment only to earn herself a shove from Schmidt. She cast a glare at him over her shoulder and then proceeded on down the hallway. They walked a ways down the hall before stopping in front of a dark, wooden door. Schmidt leaned around Anika and knocked on the door. She could hear some shuffling coming from behind the door, but it did not open.

"Ja? Wer ist es?" _(Yes? Who is it?)_ called an all too familiar voice from behind the door.

"Gefreiter Adel Schmidt, Herr." _(Private Adel Schmidt, sir.)_ her guard replied.

"Geben Sie." _(Enter.) _replied Hellstrom. Schmidt straightened up and turned the brass knob of the door. Anika's stomach clenched as the door creaked open and Schmidt shoved her inside. She found herself to be inside of what looked like an office. Hellstrom was perched behind his desk with an eerily pleasant smile. Anika glared at him, attempting to mask the growing fear within her; surely, she was failing miserably. Anika stood awkwardly between the two men as Hellstrom looked her up and down. His steely gaze took in the sight of her brutalized face and then drifted down to the rest of her body, causing his smile to deepen. Disgust spread through her. **Sick bosche pig, **she thought to herself as the Gestapo major turned his attention back to Schmidt. Schmidt re-holstered his weapon and stood beside Anika at attention.

"Vielen Dank für Ihre Hilfe, Gefreiter. Nun warten Sie bitte draußen vor der Tür. Frau Foster und ich muss ein wenig unterhalten." Hellstrom said to the young Nazi. Anika only understood so much of what he was saying, but she could tell by his tone that he was dismissing Schmidt. Schmidt reacted by clicking his heels together and saluting Hellstrom.

"Es wird geschehen." Schmidt replied before turning and walking away out of the room. He closed the door quietly behind himself, leaving Anika and Hellstrom alone in the small office. Hellstrom turned his attention back to Anika, that same smile plastered on his face. She hated that smile.

"Please," he said, gesturing to the seat in front of his desk. "Have a seat." Anika looked at the seat cautiously and then back up at Hellstrom with suspicion. He chuckled lightly.

"The chair will not harm you, my dear. Please. Sit." he said. Anika stood up taller, feigning bravery.

"I'll stand, thanks." she said. She wondered why he wasn't angry with her still, thus causing her to doubt the safety of the chair. All humor and joy left his face in the blink of an eye and was replaced by cold demanding.

"Sit your ass down…now." he said, placing strange emphasis on each word. Finding it in her best interest to do as she was told, she stepped towards the chair and lowered herself into it despite the fact that it caused her pain with the way her arms were bound behind her. At this, Hellstrom smiled again, seemingly satisfied that she had obeyed his orders. She rolled her eyes at him as she strained against the cuffs at her wrists.

"Now, Anika. I assume that you do not know why I have brought you here today?" he asked, shuffling through some papers in front of him. Anika noted that her name was on many of them.

"No…though, I'm probably safe in assuming that we're not going to have tea together, are we?" she asked, her words dripping with sarcasm. Hellstrom continued through the file before him with a small laugh.

"No, I'm afraid not. But I do have good news for you." he said, still perusing through the file. His brow was furrowed as he searched out whatever document he was looking for. With a look of "ah-ha!", he stopped on a sheet of paper and looked back up at Anika.

"Really? Ya' know, I get this feeling that our idea of what 'good news' is differs from one another's." she remarked.

"True, but I never said that Ithought it was good news. I said that it was good news for you." he said. Anika nodded. They sat in silence for a moment. Hellstrom took that time to stare at Anika, the sick smile spreading across his face again. Anika shifted uncomfortably before thinking to speak again.

"So…are you gonna tell me the good news or am I gonna have to guess?" she asked. Hellstrom shook his head as though he were trying to snap out of a trance.

"Yes. Of course." he said, standing up and walking over to Anika's side of the desk. Naturally, she shied away from him which caused him to smile and step closer to her. For the sake of getting an answer out of him, she endured his presence.

"The good news is that, after our eight short days of interrogation, my superiors have deemed you innocent." he said. He was standing behind Anika now and she looked back at him in disbelief. He smiled down at her.

"Really?" she asked.

"Truly. They managed to retrieve some data and records from the United States that proved your innocence. They've even ordered you to be released." he said. Anika looked at him in scrutiny. He seemed all too pleased for this to be the truth. Anika looked away from his pale face and stared at the wall behind his desk.

"You're lying." she said in a flat tone. Hellstrom let out a breathy chuckle.

"Quite the contrary, actually." he replied. Anika wanted to look back at him, but thought better of it.

"Then there's a catch or something." she said in the same flat tone.

"Well, that is a more accurate statement." he said. At this, Anika looked back at Hellstrom. His smiled had deepened, if it were at all possible for that to occur.

"You see, I've convinced my superiors that you could not be trusted once you get out of this prison and I've led them to believe that you can be useful for…other things." he said, bringing a thin hand up to the side of her face and caressing her cheek. Jerking away from him, she stood up and faced him, her back to the desk.

"You're fucking sick and delusional if you think I'm gonna spread my legs for you!" she exclaimed as angry tears welled up in her eyes. Hellstrom smiled devilishly as he moved the chair she was sitting in to the side. He chuckled again and shook his head as though she'd said something silly.

"I don't think that you'll do it; I know you will…whether you want to or not." he said, his voice dripping with ice. Before Anika could do anything, Hellstrom had his hand around her throat and her body pinned awkwardly to the desk. Her shoulders felt as though they would pop out of their sockets with the way her arms were smashed beneath her. Hellstrom smiled at her once more before leaning down and kissing her harshly on the lips. Anika thrashed helplessly as he forced his kiss down upon her. Her legs were crushed awkwardly by his knees as if to hold them still, making her unable to kick free of his hold on her. Her only defense was her mouth which Hellstrom was currently using as a place to hold his tongue. She bit down on his tongue tasting the blood now flowing from the wet, fleshy muscle. With a yelp of pain, Hellstrom lifted himself from Anika, blood dripping from his lips. Spitefully, Anika spit her mouthful of his blood at him hitting him right in the eye with the pinkened saliva. Using his moment of temporary blindness to her advantage, making a break for the door. She rationalized that even if Schmidt caught her and killed her, she'd be happier knowing that she left this world without being raped. She hobbled awkwardly to the door and had almost reached it before Hellstrom grabbed her by what little hair she had left and threw her back over the desk, this time face first. Her hips banged painfully against the desk as Hellstrom bent her over it and smashed her face against the desktop. Sliding his legs between hers and out to the sides, he spread her legs apart and held them there. Anika cried out angrily, fearfully as she struggled against his heavy grip. She found it unyielding and tears began to fall from her eyes onto the documents beneath her head. Hellstrom lifted up the back of the sack Anika wore, revealing her dingy underwear. Anika began to fear the worst as she could hear Hellstrom fiddling with his pants…until he stepped back, freeing up one of Anika's legs. She wasted no time in bringing the leg up forcefully between his legs. She relished in the way her heel connected with his testicles and he let out a loud squeal of pain. He fell backwards off of her and she stood upright, turning towards her would-be attacker. Hellstrom lay in a heap before her, both hands cupping his private parts, and tears spilling from his eyes. Anika smiled down at him devilishly.

"Qu'est-ce qui t'arrive, Hellstrom? Je t'ai fait mal?" _(What's the matter, Hellstrom? Did I hurt you?) _she asked venomously, reverting to French as she always did when she was extremely angered. Hellstrom whimpered as he began to push himself up off of the floor with his hands, his arms wobbling feebly beneath him. Anika stepped towards his heaped form and let out a grunt as she kicked him hard in the side. The thin man was whipped onto his back and he laid there, breathless; she'd knocked the wind out of him. Anika wasted no time in kicking him again and again as he lay there almost helplessly. He'd attempted to block his face with his hands and arms but to no avail as Anika kicked him repeatedly anywhere that she could reach. She wanted so badly to reach out and choke the life from him, but she could not with her hands bound so tightly behind her. This fact alone caused her to kick him with greater force and fury.

She was silent as she beat him in the sense that she spoke no words. She did, however, utter small cries and grunts with each blow she administered to him. She let her fury spill over this man until she was exhausted. Still she did not stop, only slowed the pace of the repetitive punting of his body. This allowed for him to react and he grabbed her foot as it flew towards his ribs. This caused Anika to fall off balance and fall to the ground beside Hellstrom with a heavy thud. She barely felt the pain of the blow through her feeling of immense satisfaction. She'd gotten her chance to hurt Hellstrom just as he had done to her so many times in the past week. She was content in that fact as Hellstrom rolled on top of her and held his hand gun to her head. She smiled up at him.

"Allez-y. Tuez-moi. Il n'a plus d'importance. J'ai obtenu une certaine forme de ma vengeance." _(Go ahead. Kill me. It doesn't matter anymore. I've gotten some form of my revenge.) _she said. The anger on Hellstrom's beaten and bloodied face deepened and he clenched his jaw. His cool, blue-grey gaze shot daggers to her as he pulled the hammer back on the gun and pressed the barrel into her temple. Anika didn't flinch or give any indication of fear. She was ready to die. She was sure that Hellstrom was going to shoot her until a frustrated smile spread across his blood spattered face.

"Je ne vais pas te tuer. C'est ce que vous voulez que je fasse." _(I'm not going to kill you. That's what you want me to do.) _he said quietly as though it were a secret. "Non, je vais te faire souffrir un peu plus longtemps. Alors, je vais faire ce que je veux de toi. Et vous allez me le donner." _(No. I'm going to make you suffer a little while longer. Then, I'll get what I want from you. And you will give it to me.) _he replied so coldly that it almost made Anika shiver.

"Nous verrons à ce sujet." _(We'll see about that.) _she replied defiantly.

"Donc, nous y parviendrons." _(So we shall.) _he replied. "Gefreiter Schmidt! Nehmen Sie jetzt hier! " he called to the young German on the other side of the door. Immediately, the door flew open.

"Ja, Sturmbannführer." Schmidt said as he entered the room. At first, he didn't seem to notice the two of them piled on the floor. However, it didn't take long for him to notice them and react. Hellstrom lifted himself off of Anika as Schmidt grabbed hold of the girl and wrenched her off of the ground. When he got her standing, he raised his right hand and crushed his fingers through her short hair while harshly gripping her right arm with his left. She made sure to stand perfectly still as to not have any of her hair ripped from her head. Hellstrom administered some instructions to Schmidt as he began to pack his things and grab his overcoat, to which the German soldier responded affirmatively before dragging Anika out of the room. It appeared that Major Dieter Hellstrom was leaving for the night. Anika made a mental note that she'd have to have Hugo teach her more in depth German.

Anika was practically dragged back to her cell by Schmidt. He walked faster than she could keep up with, and he had a firm grip on her, thus causing her to stumble and trip. Schmidt didn't seem to care about this as he continued on at the same quick pace. When he reached her cell, he unlocked the door quickly and threw her in hastily, causing her to stumble to the floor. For reasons unbeknownst to Anika, Schmidt advanced on her and started to beat her. Anika was defenseless, and she tried her best to deflect the blows without her hands; they were still bound behind her. She cried out in pain as the man's boot connected with her rib cage.

The beating continued for what seemed like hours before Schmidt stopped hitting her, kneeled down, and removed her shackles. Anika waited until he left her cell and locked the door behind him before she moved even a fraction of an inch. When she heard the lock click shut, she reached a hand up and examined her face. She could feel that there was a fresh coat of blood on her face, but she made no attempt to wipe or wash it away; she was far too exhausted and weak to do much of anything at all. Still, she managed to raise herself from the dirty ground and collapse down on top of her bed. She closed her eyes and attempted to grab sleep, but found this attempt useless. Her skull was pounding both from the damage it had taken and from the fact that she hadn't eaten in many days. Her body ached all over for the same reasons and her mind had grown weary with exhaustion. She was scared above all other things, though she tried her best not to show it to the Nazis. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd last, and the fact that Hellstrom was so intent on raping her caused her fear to intensify. She knew that he would never let her leave this prison alive. And though she craved death more than anything at that moment, she knew it in her heart and soul that Hellstrom would take extra care to keep her alive. With a quiet sob, she curled into a ball on her side and wept. This would never end.

Anika lay there for hours in a heap, sobbing until she no longer could. The jail had grown quiet save for the rustling of the newspaper that Schmidt had taken to reading. The guards seemed relaxed, at peace. Anika could smell cigarette smoke, which she deduced was coming from Hugo's cell. The silence was almost soothing to Anika. It seemed so calm. She closed her eyes, finally feeling sleep envelope her. She was almost asleep when she heard the first gunshot. Her eyes shot open instinctively and she sat bolt upright as the sound of more gunshots filled the jail. Adrenaline rushed through her veins as she scampered off of her bed and crouched down between the bed and the wall. A man ran by her cell and fired a few rounds at Schmidt and the other guards. The Nazis barely had anytime to react before the bullets ripped through their bodies and they were laying on the ground, apparently dead. Then, the silence consumed the room again.

Anika watched anxiously from her hiding place as men began enter the main room from every hallway. She counted nine men in total, all sporting a rifle or shotgun, and a knife at their waists. A majority sported like features: olive skin, and dark hair. One of the men walked forward towards Hugo's cell. None of them seemed to notice her save for one. He was a tall, broad man with thick, black hair. He cast his dark eyes into her cell and locked his gaze with hers only for a moment. Then he looked back to Hugo's cell just as the other men were doing. She could tell that these men were not Nazis by the color of their uniforms. Upon further inspection, she found that they were American soldiers. Her heart jolted at this. What were American soldiers doing in a Nazi prison?

"Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz?" asked the man who was approaching her prison-comrade's cell. The man had a heavy Southern accent of sorts, thus solidifying Anika's suspicion of them being American. Hugo didn't verbally respond, but she assumed that he nodded for the Southern man continued.

"I'm Lieutenant Aldo Raine and these 'er the Basterds. Ever hearda' us?" the lieutenant asked as he propped the butt of his rifle up against his leg. Hugo assumedly nodded again and Aldo continued.

"We just wanna say we're a big fana' yer work. When it comes to killin' Natzis-" Aldo was cut off by a groan from one of the wounded Nazi guards. Without so much as a glance downward, the man behind Aldo fired a round into the German's head and he was silent again. Aldo continued.

"-I think you show great talent. An' I pride myself in havin' an eye fer that sorta talent." he said, now moving closer to Hugo's cell and out of Anika's range of sight. Still she could hear him as he continued. "But yer status as a Natzi killer is still amateur. We all come here tuh see if you wanna go pro?" Aldo finished. It was silent again for a moment before Aldo slapped a hand on his knee and retreated back to his original position.

"Well, ain't we just glad tuh hear that? Ain't we glad tuh hear it, boys?" Aldo asked the men surrounding him. They all responded with a devious smile and a loud "Yes, sir" to their lieutenant. Anika could only assume then that Hugo had agreed to join them. Aldo smiled brightly beneath his bushy moustache and gestured to one of the men out of Anika's eyeline.

"Kagan. Dig 'round these here Krauts and find the keys to Stiglitz's cell." he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Kagan replied before walking around to the corpses in the room. He made quick work of finding the keys attached to Schmidt's belt before handing them back to his commanding officer. Aldo nodded his thanks to the younger man before walking back to Hugo's cell and unlocking the door. She could hear the door sliding open and the men began to file out. Hugo seemed to be lagging behind and Anika wondered what he was doing. Aldo seemed to notice Hugo's absence, for he turned back to the ex-Nazi.

"Somethin' wrong, Sergeant?" he asked. Hugo was silent for a moment before he responded.

"We need to take the girl with us." he said in his usual growl. Anika was taken aback by this. Not once during the raid and recruitment did she consider that she'd be saved as well. There was no way that Aldo would agree. What help could she possibly be? Anika felt that it was a pointless thing to ask. Aldo looked just as confused as Anika felt.

"What girl?" he asked. The tall, broad man's eyes automatically shot to her. Anika realized that she hadn't moved even a fraction of an inch during the whole ordeal which resulted in many of the men not noticing her at all. Hugo walked slowly over to her cell, his back to her, and gestured over his shoulder to Anika.

"Her." he responded. At this, all nine of the men looked into Anika's cell now. Looks of surprise appeared on their faces as they noticed her for the first time.

"Holy fuck," one of the shorter men said. Anika looked at him helplessly. "What happened to her?" he added, turning back to Hugo. Hugo ignored him and looked at the lieutenant instead. Aldo hadn't said anything. Instead, he examined Anika with cautious eyes. She held his gaze despite the how awkward she felt with him looking at her that way. With a sigh, he turned his attention back to Hugo.

"No can do. Me an' my men don't need no extra weight on our hands." he said rather unsympathetically. Anika thought about protesting and insisting that he take her along, but thought better of it as the broad man continued to stare her down. He had a very menacing gaze, she realized. She looked back at Hugo. He seemed unmoved by Aldo's denial.

"I'm not leaving without her. You take both of us or none of us." he growled out. Anika looked at him in confusion. Why would he insist on taking her? Anika looked back to Aldo to see what he seemed to think about the whole situation. He had a look of slight irritation on his face as he examined Anika once more.

"She's American." Hugo added. This caused Aldo to regard her with even more caution. Silence ensued as Aldo seemed to weigh his options mentally. With a sigh, he looked back to Hugo and balanced his rifle on his thigh again.

"All right. She can come with us, but only 'til I figure out what the hell she's doin' in this goddamn jail. Don't get it in yer head that she'll be stayin' with us." he said. Hugo nodded.

"Yes, sir." he replied with a small amount of sarcasm. Aldo looked at him testily before he rolled his eyes and tossed Hugo the keys to unlock Anika's cell. Hugo caught them and turned around to quickly unlock her cage. Sliding the door back quickly, he stepped into the cell and advanced on Anika.

She had never seen Hugo's face before in the light and, now that he was this close to her, all she could seem to focus on was his crystalline blue eyes. She attempted to stand up on her own, but found that her weak limbs would not support her any longer. Noticing this fact, Hugo offered her a calloused hand to aid her. Taking his large hand in hers, Hugo lifted her to her feet with ease. The quickness of the motion caused her to grow lightheaded. She leaned into Hugo and was thankful that he allowed her to do so as they made their way out of her cell. The group that had called themselves "The Basterds" began to file out of the jail with Anika and Hugo following closely behind them. Thankfully, it didn't take long for them to find a way out of the prison. Anika breathed a deep sigh of relief as they stepped out of the dank hallway of the jail and into the cool darkness of the night.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: I bet you thought I'd forgotten all about you guys, huh? Well, you didn't lose me. I'm really so very sorry for how long this took. It's been a really tough time for me recently and lost my writing muse for a while there. But she's returned (kinda) and this is what I've got for you. It's un-beta'd so it probably has a lot of mistakes and/or inconsistencies, but I wanted to get this to you ASAP. Thank you for being so patient with me. I cannot confirm when the following chapter will be ready, so I don't want to create a deadline and then break it. Just know that I am working on it. Okay. Have fun reading. Lots of love.**

**~PQTS**

The men moved forward quickly, yet cautiously with their rifles at the ready. Anika could tell that it had recently rained from the sharp chill in the air and the way that the dirt roads had turned to mud. She found herself slipping around in the thick, brown sludge, her bare feet lacking the protection of boots. Because of this, Hugo held Anika close to his side while he hustled them both along with the group of men. Anika noted that they were heading towards one of the many convoy trucks stationed outside of the jail. Aldo, the Broad Man, and another of the men headed around to the front of the truck while the rest of the men began to fill up the bed of the truck. Hugo and Anika were the last to reach the truck. Approaching the vehicle, Hugo swooped Anika up into his long arms and set her into the back of the truck. She was a little surprised at this gesture, but was thankful for it; she would have had trouble getting into the bed otherwise. With a quiet thank you, she made her way over to the left side of the truck. This convoy differed from the one that she came in on in the sense that it lacked the long benches available for sitting. She didn't mind this as she sat down on the floor on the bed, her legs tucked neatly beneath her as to not flash any of the men her underwear. Hugo climbed into the truck after her and closed the bed behind him. Much to Anika's relief, he did not sit beside her, but rather across from her. It wasn't that she had anything against Hugo, it was that she wanted to be alone for a moment with her thoughts.

She was out. As unbelievable as it seemed to her, she was out. She could see the dank, dark prison minimizing from her view as they sped off to God knew where. And she wasn't afraid of willingly walking into the unknown. She felt that she should have been scared, but she wasn't. She trusted that these men had more honor in one of them than all of the Nazis had as a whole. The Basterds wouldn't harm her if only for the fact that she was an American just as they were. With that thought in mind, she turned to observe the men around her.

They seemed to be chatting about something; some much more animated than others. She noted that though they all carried similar features, like their dark hair, each man was very unique looking on his own. Some of the men were short whereas some of them were tall. Two of the men sitting with her had blue eyes while the rest of the group had brown ones, aside from Hugo. Some of the men were tan while others seemed as though they didn't see much of the sun. Anika sat and silently observed the men for a moment longer before turning her gaze back to the view outside of the convoy, becoming lost in her thoughts once more.

She was silent as the truck drove deeper into the forest that surrounded the prison. The men had grown silent and, although she wasn't looking at them, she could sense that they were watching her. Turning back around, she saw all of the men look away as if they hadn't just been staring at her. Well, all of the men except Hugo. He stared at her shamelessly and didn't stop as she turned her gaze to him and stared back. His blue eyes held her gaze for a moment before they slowly took in the sight of the woman before him. His face held no expression, did not betray his thoughts to her. She wondered if he was mentally remarking on her dirty and bruised form. She shifted rather self consciously at that thought, causing his eyes to roam back up to her own. He held her gaze for a moment longer before he looked away and examined the men beside them. Deciding to ignore her curiosity as to what he was thinking, she turned back to the view outside and looked up at the night sky. It was beautiful. The stars shown brightly against the black-ink sky and the bright orb that was the moon lit up the land quite exquisitely. A small smile spread across her lips. It seemed true that once you accepted death yet survived, you started to appreciate all of the insignificant things around you. It was almost funny to her, this newfound value of the little things. Almost.

For the remainder of the ride, Anika drowned the men out and immersed herself in the beauty of the night. After what seemed like hours of driving, the truck finally halted in a small clearing deep inside the forest. The Basterds all released sighs of relief which wrenched Anika out of her moonlight euphoria and back to the situation at hand. The men stood up as much as they could in the narrow caravan, and Anika waited for them all to exit before she weakly made her way out. She attempted to stand up only to have her legs wobble feebly beneath her. Opting to crawl for safety's sake, she made her way across the floor of the truck's bed and moved to the opening at the back end of the trunk. Hugo, having kept a hawk's eye on her, offered her a helping hand when she was ready to step down from the truck. With a polite smile, she placed her bruised and cut up hand into his large, calloused one and allowed him to support her weight as she climbed down from the large truck. Thanking him quietly, she straightened up in an attempt to show that she could stand on her own. Hugo studied her cautiously for a moment before nodding at her and walking away towards the other men. Anika followed quietly behind him, making sure to keep a distance while still being able grab him if need be. By the way he constantly glanced over his shoulder, it seemed he was doing the same. Looking past Hugo, she observed that they had stopped at what appeared to be the Basterd's campsite. The men seemed at home as they began to settle in. Aldo perched himself on a large boulder while the rest of the men gathered around him and shed their weapons and jackets. The lieutenant watched Anika and Hugo carefully as he produced from him pocket a small box. Flicking it open, he plucked out one pebble-sized, white rock and slipped it up into his nose. He repeated this motion with the other nostril before flicking the box closed and standing again.

"Sergeant Donowitz and Corporal Wicki, can I see you two boys over here for a minute?" Aldo asked as he pinched and rubbed at his nose. Anika fought back the urge to roll her eyes as she sat down on a downed tree. **Great. A drug addict, **she thought to herself. Two men whom she assumed to be Donowitz and Wicki advanced towards their commanding officer with a "yes, sir". She noted that one of the men was the broad, menacing one. She made a point to avoid making eye contact with him and instead took to watching the lower ranking men as they set up camp and started a fire. They spoke to one another again exchanging playful insults and banter. Anika was just thankful that they weren't talking about her and Hugo anymore. Hugo stood beside Anika and seemingly watched the men as well, though he seemed to be on edge. She considered for a moment asking him what was wrong, but she thought better of it and turned her attention back to the group of men.

As she sat silently, Aldo called Hugo over to join the small group of men accumulated around him. Hugo cast her an assuring glance before he silently stalked away towards Aldo. Anika looked around at the remaining men nervously, feeling a sudden sense of vulnerability. She couldn't explain why, but the men suddenly seemed slightly more menacing to her now. Their every move seemed to intimidate her as they threw thin sticks into the now raging fire or maintained their weapons. She didn't quite understand why these men had so quickly become a threat to her, but she only wished that Hugo would come back to her side. Looking desperately to where he stood, she saw that he had his back to her. She took in a deep breath to calm her nerves and then waited patiently for the higher ranking men to return to the rest of the group. A chill washed over her, and she instinctively pulled her knees to her chest. She cupped her hands over her mouth and blew hot air into them until they were warm and then rubbed them up and down her bare legs. Wincing slightly, she rested her chin on her kneecaps and steadily tried to warm herself. As she did so, one of the men snapped their fingers, gathering her attention. Lifting her head slightly, she turned towards the men to find all six of them looking at her. The one that had snapped his fingers at her, one of the smaller men with dark, straight locks and deep brown eyes, waved his hand to get her attention. She gazed at him silently.

"Hey, uh…girl. Ya' wanna get closer to the fire or do ya' just wanna sit there and freeze?" he asked. One of the other short men swatted him.

"Real fuckin' suave, Ulmer." the man remarked. Ulmer shrugged his shoulders with a look of innocence.

"What? She was cold so I asked her to come over. I don't see what the big deal is." he replied. His attacker rolled his eyes.

"It's the way you said it, asshole. You can at least try to seem like you have manners." the man replied.

"What the hell do ya' expect? Ya' want me to put on a fuckin' tuxedo and talk in a fuckin' English accent too? I'm just tryin' to be nice!" Ulmer yelled back. The other man rolled his eyes and then turned to look at Anika.

"You cold?" he asked, his tone much kinder than Ulmer's had been. Anika nodded. He smiled politely to her and gestured for her to come closer to them. She looked at the men nervously, staying right where she was. The man smiled brightly to her.

"We won't hurt you. I promise." he said. She scrutinized him for a moment before sighing out her nerves and moving closer to the fire.

The warmth of the blaze spread up her legs, something she was thankful for. The night was very cold. The man who had invited her over seemed pleased that she had trusted him. As she sat down on the ground close to the blaze, the man began to frown. She wondered what he was upset about when he reached behind him and began to rifle through his bag and pulled out a dingy cloth. Looking back up at her, he unclipped his canteen from his belt and handed her the items.

"Here. You can use these to wash the blood off of your face." he said in the same kind tone. She blushed slightly and took the cleaning tools from him, rather thankful that he couldn't see her embarrassment. She sat back down and got to work on her face. She folded the cloth up and unscrewed the cap of the canteen. She placed the cloth to the lip of the canteen and flipped it. She placed the wet cloth to her face and began to wipe away the bloody grime and muck plastered on her face.

The white cloth, though previously dingy, turned to a deep rusty brown as she wiped away more and more of the carnage left on her face. She was pleased to find that her face was a lot less banged up than she had previously supposed. There was a large gash running through her eyebrow, a smaller one on her lip, her nose was no doubt bruised, and her left eye was a little swollen. Once she was finished, she looked back up at the men around her with a self conscious smile. They all began to smile at her brightly, only causing her smile to deepen. Ulmer gave her a thumbs up.

"Much better." said the man who had offered her the cloth and canteen. With a small thank you, she handed him back the items.

"You're very welcome." he replied and re-stowed the two things. They sat in silence for a moment before a chilly breeze ran through the enclosure. Anika shivered and redrew her knees to her chest. The kind man seemed to notice this and began to rummage through his bag again. This time, he produced a pair of brown pants and handed them to her. She took them without hesitation and stood up to pull them on. She was thankful for his shortness, for the pants were the perfect length for her. She looked at him with another smile.

"Thank you, Mister…?" she asked. He stood up and dusted a hand off, offering it to her.

"Hirschberg. Gerold Hirschberg. And you are?" he asked. She took his hand in hers and shook it firmly.

"Anika Foster. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Hirschberg." she replied as they both sat back down.

"Eh. You can call me just Hirschberg. Everyone else does." he said. She thought about that for a moment before speaking again.

"May I call you Gerold?" she asked. He smiled at her bashfully for a moment before nodding.

"I don't see why not." he said. She nodded. Just as Hirschberg seemed that he was going to speak to her again, the group of superiors broke their session and made their way over to the remaining group of people. Much to Anika's dismay, they descended upon her and her alone. Aldo stood before her while Donowitz and Wicki stood at each of her sides. Hugo came to stand just behind her and he helped her up from the ground as she stood to meet the men.

"All right, lady. I'm gon' ask ya' a few questions and yer gon' answer 'em honestly. Got it?" he asked. Anika looked at him testily and nodded. She wondered how much Hugo had told them and whether they were looking to see if their answers matched up. This prompted her to answer.

"All right. What's yer name and age?" he asked.

"Anika Marie Foster. I'm 23 years old, born on October 16, 1919." she replied, stating her full name for the record.

"Anika Foster. Good. Now…you mind telling' us what the hell yer doin' in France, Anika?" he asked. This question brought a bout of nervous butterflies to her stomach. It wasn't that she had anything to hide about why she was in France; it was just that this simple question had given her so much grief in the past week. She opened her mouth in an attempt to answer but found that she could not. Her voice was stayed by the growing fear within her. Her hesitation did not go unnoticed as the man called Donowitz unsheathed a large, menacing dagger from his belt and brandished it at her.

"Ya' betta ansuh the question, doll, or I staht cutting'." he said. At this, Hugo placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her behind him protectively.

"Wenn Sie zu berühren, werde ich den Kopf abreißen mit meinen Händen tragen!" he exclaimed quickly. Anika wondered what that could have meant, but it didn't sound like a very nice phrase. The one called Wicki smiled.

"What'd ya' say tuh me, ya' Kraut fuck?" Donowitz asked, turning the blade towards Hugo and towering over the German. A low growl escaped from Hugo, and Aldo placed a hand on Donowitz's shoulder.

"Donny, settle down. There ain't no need fer alla that right now. Give 'er a chance to speak." he said. Donny and Hugo stared at each other angrily for a moment. Anika, looking to Aldo, placed a hand on Hugo's shoulder. The stoic German immediately looked down at her, seemingly broken out of his angry trance. Wordlessly, she shook her head at him and pleaded with her eyes for him to stop. He looked at her in silence for a moment before turning back to Donny and then moving behind her once more. Donny straightened up and re-sheathed his blade, causing Anika's nerves to die down a bit.

"Now that we got that outta the way…you were sayin'?" Aldo asked. Anika took a deep breath and looked Aldo directly in his blue eyes.

"I moved to France two years ago with the intent on being free from the stifling lifestyle of a woman in America." she replied, hopefully not giving away too much detail of a story she didn't wish to tell. Aldo looked at her in scrutiny.

"Whatdya mean by that?" he asked. She held his gaze despite her nerves.

"I couldn't do the whole 'housewife' thing. So I left." she responded. Aldo nodded, seemingly accepting this answer, and moved on.

"All right. It's also been brought tuh my attention that ya' speak French?" She nodded. "Uh-huh. Where'd ya' pick up that lil' skill?" he asked.

"My grandparents on both of my parents sides were born in France and moved to America. They speak fluent French and, seeing as it's their first language, my parents know it, and my brothers and I learned it as well." she replied.

"Just fer future reference, what're tha names of these family members of yers?" he asked.

"My grandparents on my mother, Anabel Foster's, side are Jean and Isabelle Thibedoux. My father, Gregory Foster's, parents' names are Jacques and Marie Foster. I'm not sure what their surname was before they came here, but I do know that it was changed as to help them blend in more. My brother's names are Gregory Junior, he's 31; Lawrence, he's 28; and Johnathan; he's 25. All three of my brothers are enlisted men. They're Marines." she said, giving as much information as she could recall. Again, Aldo nodded and then looked to Donny. Donny shrugged and the lieutenant turned his gaze back to Anika's.

"All right, I'll buy it fer now. Where 'bouts in America did ya come from?" he asked.

"Chicago, Illinois." she replied. He grew silent at this and he seemed to ponder the information she'd provided them with. She waited anxiously until he sighed and spoke again.

"All right. Here's tha plan. Ya' can stay with us 'til I get word out tuh my commanding officer and he tells me what tuh do with ya' then. Got it?" he asked. With a slight sigh of relief, she nodded to him.

"But that don't mean I trust ya'… 'cause I don't." he reassured her. She shrugged at this.

"I don't expect you to." she replied. At this, Aldo seemed a bit surprised, but he did not voice his thoughts on what she said. Instead, he dismissed the group and went back to perch on his boulder. Anika stood there for a moment while Donny cast Hugo one last look of hate before retreating to the opposite side of the camp. He picked up a very bloody, gnarled bat and began swinging it about with his back to the camp. Seeing the ferocity with which he swung the club, she decided that she'd like to stay away from his bad side. Turning away from him, she turned back to Hugo who was still standing just behind her. He still seemed to be agitated. He seemed to avoid her gaze as his was focused just over her head onto something in the distance. With a pat on his shoulder, she made her way back to the campfire and sat down on the fallen log that many of the men had taken refuge on top of. Two of the men had engaged in an epic battle between one another, something that did not go unnoticed by their superior. Aldo watched the men momentarily with an expectant gaze as though he thought they'd take notice of this. Neither man seemed to pay him any mind. Standing with his hands on his hips, he took in a deep breath before shouting at the men.

"Hey! You two retards fuckin' knock that off!" he ordered. The taller of the two men administered one last shove to the smaller, causing him to careen backwards off of the log. Anika noticed as he stood up that his right hand was bleeding profusely. She gathered that he probably hurt it when he'd stuck his hand behind him to break his fall. Some long-forgotten part of her was instantly reawakened at the sight of the blood. She wondered whether they had the proper supplies for him to bandage the wound; it appeared to be deep. A rustling beside her brought her from her thoughts as Aldo took to his feet again.

"Didn't I tell you two tuh knock that shit off? Now Utivich has gone an' cut his hand. Ya' better still be able tuh use that damn thing." he said, directing the last sentence directly at the smaller man. He nodded back to his lieutenant.

"Sorry, sir. I'll get it bandaged up right away." he said rather quietly. Aldo responded by making a grumbling sound and waving Utivich his approval. With that, he returned to his perch atop the boulder. Then he was silent again. The man that Aldo had called Utivich sat back down where he had been previously and requested from one of his teammates the first aid kit. One of them retrieved it and passed it his way. As he reached for the small, leather pack with his left hand, Anika got another glimpse of the small man's deep red blood spilling between his fingers. Very clumsily, Utivich began to open up the kit and remove from it a roll of clean white gauze. Anika gathered from the lack of precision he possessed in his left hand that this young man was right handed. As best he could, he began to wrap the gauze around his hand, taking no time to rinse or clean the wound. **It's going to get infected, **she thought. **He has no idea what he's doing. **Without a word, Anika stood and crossed what little distance there was between the two of them and knelt before him. It seemed that everyone was watching her with mild curiosity as she took his gory hand in hers and began to unwrap his sloppy bandages. She assessed the damage in silence; the gash was angled diagonally from the inside of his palm to the outside. It was a deep cut, but it would heal without issue nor would it have caused him any major problems while it healed. Releasing his hand, she looked through the small first aid kit to see if there was anything she could use to clean the wound. In it, she found one small pack of Sulfa. It was a meager amount, but it would suffice. Turning her gaze from the sulfa, she looked up into the man's wide, blue eyes.

"May I have your canteen, please?" she asked with a small smile. He was hesitant to comply seeing as he didn't quite trust the woman yet, but he did as she asked. She took the canteen from him with a polite 'thank you' and then took to unscrewing the cap with one hand.

"This may sting a bit." she warned before pouring the cool, clean liquid over the wound. His hand twitched a little at the contact, but he made no other indication that he felt anything. Using the clean parts of his used gauze, she wiped away the remaining traces of blood.

"Now, this will sting a lot more." she said. He nodded to her as she ripped open the sulfa packet with her teeth and dumped it onto his wound. At this, he hissed in pain. She smiled up at him apologetically. After letting the sulfa sit for what she judged was enough time, she took up the canteen again and washed away the sulfa. Finding the wound clean enough, she took up the gauze again and began a new section, then she began to securely wrap the man's hand.

After a minute or so, she was done and Utivich's hand was wrapped tightly. She inspected her handy work, had him flex his hand to see if he could move it, and made sure it wasn't too tight. Content, she stood silently and carefully as not to strain her all ready sore muscles. He examined his white-wrapped hand before smiling bashfully at her.

"Thanks," he said quietly.

"You're welcome." she replied with a small smile as she turned on her heel and made her way back to her original seat.

"Um…I'm Smithson Utivich." he said rather awkwardly. She nodded to him.

"Pleasure to meet you, Smithson." she said. She didn't find it necessary to offer her own name again.

The group was relatively quiet after that. She wasn't sure why that was, but she did enjoy the silence. It gave her more time to relax. Hugo had taken to absentmindedly scraping a rock across the fallen log they sat upon. After a while Aldo stood again, his hands almost naturally falling to his hips.

"Well, I 'bout reckon that it's time fer some dinner." he said. The men rejoiced with a round of claps and cheers. Anika and Hugo remained silent though they were just as happy as the others. It had been a while since the duo had eaten anything.

All of the men scrambled around the camp pulling out what little food items it seemed they had left. Anika watched watering mouth and a growling stomach as slices of bread were pulled out and thin cuts of what she guessed were roast beef were placed on top. As the meager sandwiches were being passed around the circle, she began to wonder whether or not she would be fed; she wasn't really a part of Aldo's group. Settling back on the log, she fought back her hunger pains. She couldn't really expect these men to feed her. It was enough that they were allowing her to stay. She figured that she could last the remaining days without food. Water, however, she would need. She'd figure out how to get some later. For now, she focused on trying to ignore her hunger pains. She looked at Hugo to find him watching the other men prepare the sandwiches, his blue eyes alight with hunger. Looking at this man now in the fire light, she could tell that he was older than she. He didn't appear to be quite as old as Aldo who appeared to be somewhere in his 40's, but she was sure that he at least a 10 year gain on her 23 years. His stony face bore a few creases at the corners of his eyes and mouth, and his short-cropped, golden blonde hair had faded to grey here and there. It made sense, she figured, for him to be about that age. He was, after all, a sergeant. What was the German word for it? Olbërfeldwebel? That sounded about right. She'd have to ask Hugo later.

"Ay, Anika!" a voice called, interrupting her thoughts. She turned to the general direction of the voice. Much to her surprise, it was Aldo speaking to her. She sat up rather rigidly.

"Yes?" she asked, wondering what he could want now.

"You wanna eat or what?" he asked. With a sigh of relief, she nodded.

"Yes, sir." she added.

"Then get yer head outta the fuckin' clouds and listen to Hirschberg." he replied. She nodded again and turned her attention to Hirschberg. With a smile, he handed her sloppy sandwich. Gratefully, she took it from him placed it delicately on her lap.

"Thank you, Gerold." she said with a slight smile. He smiled back and nodded his head slightly to her before setting off on distributing the remaining sandwiches.

Though it proved to be very difficult, Anika politely waited to eat until each man was equipped with a meal. She noted that, before any of them began, they each lowered their heads and muttered some words to themselves. She could only assume that they were praying, and she was unsure as to whether or not she should join them. Just as she considered praying, they raised their heads and began to eat. Once that happened, she wasted no time in devouring the sandwich. She practically inhaled the food, barely taking the time to chew. She didn't care how pigish she seemed; a week was a long time to go without food. Only once did she glance up from her meal, and that was to observe Hugo. He ate just as fervently as she did. Content with that, she went back to her food in peace. Or, at least, she tried to eat in peace. The feeling of eyes on her caused her to look up again and find the Basterds staring at her and Hugo. At that, she set what was left of her sandwich back down on her lap. Hugo too looked at the men, but he did not halt in his ingestion. Her eyes met each man's in turn, including Aldo and Donowitz, as she silently inquired as to what they were looking at. Omar was the first to speak.

"Holy hell you two eat fast. It's like you haven't eaten in d-" he was cut off by a sharp nudge in the ribs by Utivich.

"What? What'd I say?" Omar asked, clearly unaware of the truth in what he was about to say.

"Your stupidity amazes me." Utivich muttered under his breath. After that, they were silent. Anika looked down at the small bit of sandwich she had left with sadness. Her stomach growled hungrily at the sight of it. As she picked it up to eat again, she wondered why it was that Omar didn't know of what the Nazis did to their prisoners. Not to say that Anika and Hugo had it the worst. No; she'd heard of the internment camps where they sent all of the Jews they could find. The things they did to Anika paled in comparison to what they did there. If anything, she'd gotten off lucky. Shaking that thought from her head, she focused her attention back onto eating.

Slowly, the men and woman were all finished with their food with Anika and Hugo finishing first. With full bellies, a sense of lethargy fell over the camp. Anika had taken to laying on the forest floor and counting the stars. She was at 1,245 by the time Aldo stood again and announced that it was time for them all to get some rest.

"Everybody be sure tuh stay alert. Omar and Wicki, you two got first watch. Ya' can trade off with Sakowitz and Donowitz in a few hours. Stiglitz," he said, snagging Hugo's attention. Anika pretended not to be paying attention to Aldo, but watched him and Hugo out of the corner of her eyes. Aldo handed Hugo a small bundle of some rather thin looking blankets.

"These'll be yers an' Anika's. I'll pick up a pack fer ya to carry 'em in tomorrow when we head intuh town." he finished. Hugo accepted the bedding, but looked at the lieutenant with distraught. This did not go unnoticed by Aldo.

"Somethin' wrong, Sergeant?" he asked the German.

"No, sir. I just think that Anika deserves a place of her own to sleep." Hugo replied, his accent thick. At this Aldo smiled, though the smile seemed a little dangerous.

"Ya' know, I recall explainin' tuh you that she'd be yer problem, not mine." he said in a dangerously cold tone. Hugo seemed as though he had more to say, but he decided to nod curtly instead.

"Yes, sir." he said. With that, Aldo stalked off to where the other men were gathering to sleep. Hugo sighed to himself and walked over to Anika. She looked up at him as he towered over her. Wordlessly, he offered her his hand to help lift her from the ground. She accepted his help and came up from the leafy floor cautiously. When she was fully erect, Hugo looked out over the clearing, seemingly in search of something. When it appeared that he found it, he looked to Anika and gestured with his head for her to follow him. She did so and followed silently along behind him as he led her off to an area that was secluded from the rest of the group, but close enough to it to be notified of any danger. Hugo began to unroll the bedding and lay the blankets down. He laid the two blankets side by side. Anika assumed that one was for her and the other was for him. When he finished that, he turned to Anika with a blank expression.

"Sich legen." he said. Anika looked at him in confusion.

"I don't know what that means." she admitted.

"Lie down." he clarified. Nodding, she descended onto the blanket closet to her and laid on the far side of it. Then, she folded the other half of it over herself effectively making a sleeping bag out of it. The blanket was very thin and did little to protect her from the breeze that was making its way through the clearing. She was thankful that Hirschberg had been kind enough to lend her his pants. Hugo laid down beside her on the opposing blanket and repeated her motions. He lay on his back and removed from his pocket the last of his cigarettes. There appeared to be three left. As Anika was laying on her left side facing him, he turned his head to the side and looked at her.

"Wollen Sie eine?" _(Do you want one?) _he asked, holding a small roll out to her. She shook her head at him.

"Nein, danke." muttered quietly. All she wanted to do was sleep. Shrugging it off, he turned his head back towards the sky and then lit a cigarette for himself. The familiar smell of the smoke was comforting to Anika and she felt sleep begin to consume her. Rolling over onto her right side, she closed her eyes and found that sleep very quickly took over her…

**Hellstrom had his thin-fingered hand wrapped around Anika's throat as he forced her up against a wall. She was facing the wall and could not see his face, but she knew that he was smiling that sick smile of his. She tried to push back against him, to throw him off of her, but she couldn't move. All she could seem to do was cry. He had full control of her.**

"**Vous ne serez pas loin de moi, Anika. Pas cette fois…" **_**(You won't get away from me, Anika. Not this time…) **_**he said as he tightened his grip around her neck. She could feel his heart beating erratically in his chest as it was pressed against her back, and she could feel something sickly hard pressing against her thigh. This only caused her to cry more and attempt to struggle though she still couldn't move. Seeing her struggling caused Hellstrom to laugh and throw Anika down to the ground. Do her surreal paralysis she could not break her fall, and she fell onto her back and smacked her head painfully on the floor. She tried again to move, to get up or crawl away from this demon, but she could not move. Her tears fell in hot streaks down her fear stricken face as she called out for help. She yelled and screamed for anyone to help her, but she knew it in her heart that nobody was listening. Hellstrom's laughter began to fill the space of the room as he stood over her now, looking down at her with that sadistic smile of his. There was a glint of malice in his cold, grey eyes as he unbuckled his belt and began to descend upon her…**

"Anika! Aufwachen!" _(Anika! Wake up!)_ called a familiar voice, bringing her up from the depths of her nightmare. She sat bolt up right and gasped for air, trying to identify her surroundings. Trees. There were trees. She was back in the forest. She looked to right to see Hugo staring at her with concern. He had woken her up.

"What? Is something wrong?" she asked, visions of the night terror fading away but the feeling of fear still lingering. She was panting and covered in a cold sweat, but she was shivering. Whether it was from the cold or fear, she could not tell.

"You were…" he trailed off as though he were choosing which words to use. His blue eyes seemed to glow in the night.

"Yes?" she asked, bringing her hands up to rub the goosebumps from her arms. She was cold. He sighed.

"You were shivering." he said simply. She looked at him curiously. She was sure that he would not have woken her for something so little, but she decided not to question his motives.

"I'll be all right." she assured him, through now chattering teeth. She looked over her shoulder to where the fire had been. The men must have put it out as to not attract people to them. It explained why she was so cold. She turned back to Hugo. He scrutinized her for a moment before opening up his blanket, unbuttoning his coat jacket, and gesturing for him to come towards him.

"Herkommen." _(Come here.) _he demanded, though not harshly. Anika shook her head.

"I'll be fine, Hugo." she replied. At this he looked at her sternly. Very quickly, he grasped her by both of her arms and pulled her towards him. His grip was not painful, but it was strong enough to make her move from one place to another. He pulled her down onto his blanket and into his warm chest. He used her blanket to cover them and then he wrapped his arms around her, creating a warm barrier from the world.

"Put your arms around my waist." he instructed. Reluctantly, she did as she was told. They were silent now; all she could hear was the sound of Hugo's steady, even breathing. She was unsure of what to do about this new position she found herself in. But, as warmth took hold of her, so did sleep and she suddenly didn't mind so much. Burying her face into his chest, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep again, this time with dreams of her life before the war.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: And I'm sure you all thought I'd forgotten about you, huh? Never fear. I'm back, but I can guarantee that I will not be posting as often as I did in the beginning. The life of an adult has finally caught up with me :( **

**Anyways, I am so sorry for the long period of absence. All sorts of things hindered my writing, but the blame can mostly be placed on a monstrous case of WRITERS BLOCK. Needless to say, I powered through it and have now produced chapter 6 of "Good Bye, My Love". As always, please R&R. Thank you to all who commented on all the previous chapters. You all have truly become my muses.**

**~PQTS**

**P.S.-This was written in very large chunks on many different days. Please excuse any changes in the overall "mood" of the story :/**

Anika awoke the next day due to a rather cold breeze rolling through the forest. She was happy to know that it was not her nightmares that had woken her; she had remained nightmare free for the rest of the night after Hugo had woken her. Still, the goosebumps rising on her skin were annoying enough to wake her. Shivering, she looked to her left to find that Hugo was no longer beside her. A streak of panic ran through her as she sat up to survey the camp. Had they all left her? She was certain that she was safe with them; had that been a false feeling?

To her relief, the men were up and congregated around the remains of the previous night's fire, Hugo included. He was slightly juxtaposed from the largest cluster of men and he appeared to be alone. With a deep breath to calm her nerves, she began to muster the strength to rise and descend the hill. This proved to be something better said than done as her many bruises and scrapes screamed in protest at her movement. Once she was fully erect, she waited until the pain ebbed away before grabbing the blankets and folding them into perfect squares. Then, she began to wobble her way down the hill towards the men, her bare feet slipping against the dew dampened leaves. As the ground leveled out into a steady plateau, she decided to get her bearings before looking out over the clearing.

The men were separated into 3 groups. Most of them were sitting and playing a card game diagonally from where she was standing. To her right, was Donowitz patrolling the perimeter with another of the men. Then there was Hugo who was somewhat diagonal from the men playing a card game.

Hugo noticed her before anyone else, though he made no indication that her presence made any difference to him. Still, she approached him and sat down quietly beside him. From what Anika could tell, he wasn't doing anything too significant. He cast her a quick sideways glance as she settled into the log they were on before turning back to stare out over the clearing. Anika considered striking up a conversation with him, but she opted instead for simply sitting beside him in silence while observing the men around her. As she looked over them, Hirschberg noticed her and smiled at her. Anika smiled a little back at him. Excusing himself from the game, he began to walk towards the duo. This did not go unnoticed by Hugo as he watched Hirschberg with a dark expression as he approached them.

"Good morning, Anika." he said brightly as he smiled down at her.

"Morning, Gerold." she replied quietly, her smile still intact.

"Ya' sleep okay?" he asked. Anika nodded, though she felt slightly guilty for lying.

"Good…ya' hungry? We don't got much, but we got some bread left if you want some." he added. At this, her smile deepened and she nodded.

"Yes please." she said. Hirschberg smiled back to her before stepping away momentarily to retrieve a roll of bread for her. Gratefully, she accepted the bread before she began to consume it.

The trio was silent for a while as Anika slowly ate the bread roll provided to her, mind moving back to quietly watching the men surrounding her. They didn't seem to act like any other soldiers she'd ever met. They were all very relaxed with the entire situation they found themselves in. Well, perhaps relaxed wasn't exactly the right word, but functional certainly was. After witnessing the way the men dispatched the Nazi guards at the prison, she would assume that the men would be more internalized, more silent; each of them carried smiles and seemed to be enjoying their time in Nazi-occupied France. She began to wonder why the men had signed onto this mission until the sound of Hirschberg's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Anika?" he asked her, slight concern in his voice. She focused her attention back to him. Worry sank deep into his boyish, heart shaped face.

"Yes?" she asked, bringing herself back to reality.

"I was just making sure that you were okay. You seemed…pretty far off." he said quietly.

"Oh…I'm fine. I was just a little lost in thought." she replied with a small laugh to reassure him. This seemed to work as he nodded with a faint smile before glancing over to the men playing cards. Anika followed his gaze and watched as Omar dealt out a new hand of cards. Hirschberg looked back at her with a smile.

"You any good at card games?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No. My brothers always beat me when we played." she remarked. A sadness struck her heart at that thought. She certainly missed her family.

"You wanna play with us?" he asked politely. Anika found herself suddenly uncomfortable and shifted slightly. Hugo seemed to sense this new stress she had taken on, and she felt him tense beside her. Still, she tried not to show her discomfort by smiling again.

"Oh. No thank you." she replied. From the look on Hirschberg's face, she could tell that he was going to offer the invitation once more. A low, growl-like sound escaped from Hugo, effectively halting Hirschberg's words. A quick look at the man beside her revealed the same dark expression from before, only now his blue eyes gleamed with a silent threat. Hirschberg seemed to take this as a hint and he stepped back a pace from Anika.

"Well…if you change your mind, feel free to join us." he said before turning on his heel and walking away. Anika muttered her thanks to Hirschberg's back before looking down at her hands with a relieved sigh. Though Hugo had clearly frightened Hirschberg, Anika was thankful for it in a way. She wasn't quite prepared to interact with the men on her own again. **Not yet anyways,** she thought.

Anika sat silently beside Hugo for a long while before she decided to speak to him. Turning slightly towards him, she smiled to him.

"Thank you for keeping me warm in the night." she said quietly. His blue eyes met hers momentarily before he looked out over the clearing once more with a nod. Content with this conversation, she turned away from him again and observed the men again in silence.

Several moments of silence later, the light sound of leaves crunching signified the arrival of Aldo and the other two men. As the men came to a halt, Aldo began to bark orders at the men around her. The men left at the camp seemed to jump up and take on some form of soldierly duty, while Anika sat quietly to herself. Hugo stood slowly and adjusted his dingy uniform before turning to Anika. She curiously brought her eyes to meet his cool blue ones. Silently, he offered her his hand to assist her in standing. With a thankful smile, she placed her small hand into his large one and allowed him to pull her into a standing position. The pain in her legs caused her to lose her balance and fall heavily into Hugo with a whimper of pain. Without hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her to catch and stepped back to support her weight. Slowly as to not hurt her further, he helped her stand up straight and held her out in front of him before looking at her with deep concern in his eyes. Anika's cheeks burned with embarrassment as she steadied herself and stood up straight before him.

"I'm all right," she replied to the worried look on his face. It turned to one of slight disbelief.

"I'm fine, Hugo." she said sternly, willing him to believe her. With a reluctant nod, he took his hands from her shoulders and headed towards the congregating men. Anika took a deep, steadying breath before following Hugo. As she neared the group, she noticed Utivich looking at her somewhat apprehensively. Anika wondered why that was but decided not to think too much of it. He seemed to be a very nervous and wary man, and his actions were his own to wonder about. Instead, she turned her attention to Aldo. Aldo had taken to quietly speaking to Donny. When he finished with that, he turned to address the rest of his men.

"All right. Me, Utivich, an' Wicki here went an' got some supplies. Now, it's only enough to get us to the next town, so I 'spect ya'll tuh divvy 'em up amongst yerselves and make 'em last." he said as he made eye contact with each man in turn.

"Do I find myself understood?" he asked. Each man responded with a loud 'Yes sir'. Aldo then turned his attention directly to Hugo and addressed him personally.

"Stiglitz, we managed to get ya' yer own pack fer yer supplies. When yer done gearin' up, go an' talk tuh Donny an' he'll set ya' up with some weapons."

"Yes, sir." Hugo growled. With that Aldo stood up and dismissed his men. Naturally, Anika set off to quietly follow Hugo.

"You! Foster!" Aldo yelled, stopping Anika dead in her tracks. Hugo had halted as well and turned back to the girl as she stared at Aldo.

"Yes?" she replied in a small voice. Aldo gestured for her to approach him and Anika did so. Hugo proceeded on with his orders, but Anika could see that he was still watching them. As soon as she was standing in front of Aldo, his cold blue eyes bore into hers.

"I got aholda my superiors and they say I'm tuh bring ya' to the nearest American border fer further questionin'. What that means is I 'spect ya to pull yer weight when asked to and tuh stay outta the way every other time. Got it?" he asked. Anika nodded to him.

"Good. Now, we couldn't have ya' leechin' off Stiglitz's supplies this whole time, so we got ya' yer own. It ain't much, and it surely ain't as much as we lug 'round, but we don't 'spect tuh have ya' with us fer much longer. It's just the basics, but Utivich went ahead and got ya' some new clothes." he said. Anika was surprised by this and regarded the young man with curiosity before turning back to Aldo.

"Why would he do that?" she asked. Aldo shrugged.

"I do not know, but he used his own money an' everything. So I suggest you go on an' thank him when we're done speakin'." Anika nodded.

"Is there anything else I should know, or should I get my things?" she asked.

"There's nothing more to report officially, but I will have ya' know that even though yer gonna be stayin' with us, I still don't trust you. I'm only following orders." he added as he fished around in the breast pocket of his jacket. Anika watched him with interest as he did this and was slightly surprised to see him produce a small wooden box.

"I understand. I don't expect you to trust me just yet. But I promise you that I mean you and your men no harm, Aldo." he shook his head at her as he popped open the box, removed from it a small white rock, and inhaled the rock.

"No, no, no. None uh that friendly 'Aldo' shit with me. You will address me as Lieutenant Raine. Understood?" he said, looking down at her sternly. She smirked a little and watched as he inhaled another white rock before putting the small wooden box back into his breast pocket.

"You know that's bad for you right, Lieutenant Raine." she said, gesturing to the box hidden away in his pocket. Aldo rolled his eyes at her.

"Just because ya' seem tuh know a lil bit 'bout all that medical shit don't mean ya' can lecture me like some sorta doctor." he said. This time it was Anika who rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant Raine." she replied before turning from him and walking away towards the men. She needed to retrieve her things. Hugo had apparently all ready packed his sack and was standing with her things in hand waiting for her.

The bag the men had gotten for her was smaller than theirs and it was to be carried to the side of her instead of on her back. Gratefully, she took the bag and took to examining its contents.

Aldo was correct in saying that it wasn't much; there was only a few food items, a spoon and fork, a canteen full of water, a blanket, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and soap. Still, Anika was thankful for it all, particularly the soap. She smiled slightly and began to close the bag. Hugo cleared his throat and Anika looked up him. He silently gestured to Utivich who was cautiously approaching Anika, a bundle of clothing in his hands with boots balanced atop them.

"Hello, Smithson." Anika said with a smile. He smirked back at her before casting a cautious glance towards Hugo. Anika looked to the man beside her, immediately reading his tense form as one of ultimate protection. She placed a hand on his arm, silently telling him to stand down. His body eased up a bit, but not entirely. Deciding that this was a compromise, she turned back to Smithson with a smile. The man remained silent, but he held his bounty out to her with a nervous smile. Anika's smile deepened as she accepted the clothes from him, bringing them to her chest before looking down at them. On sight, she could tell that most of the clothes were male, but they looked small enough to fit her thin body. The boots, though quite small, seemed that they would fit her only about a size to big. The sound of Smithson clearing his throat caused her to look back up at him.

"I've never really shopped for a woman before, so I tried my best to get the right sizes. I don't know how well they'll fit…" he said quietly in an insecure manner. Anika shook her head at him, but continued to smile at him.

" They're perfect." she said, reassuring him of his generosity. At this he smiled and she returned the favor. A barked order from Aldo caused both she and Smithson to jump before they both relaxed again.

"I should get back to work," he said as he gestured over his shoulder to the congregation of men behind him. She nodded to him and hugged her new clothing closer.

"Merci, Smithson." she said, trying to implement as much meaning into the words as possible. He nodded to her.

"You're welcome, Anika." he said before turning around and walking back to his men. Anika set the boots on the ground beside her and took this time fully look at the clothing, taking inventory in her mind. Smithson had gotten her a lot, in her opinion: two sets of boxers, a pair of thick slacks, a single button down shirt, a light wool coat, two pairs of socks, and a simple black dress. This last item surprised her, as she had expected all of the items to be clothing for men. A smile played on her lips as she admired the item, but it soon faded as she realized her current state of dress. She turned to Hugo, frown still intact, as she rolled all of her clothing into smaller cylinders of cloth and fit them nicely into her bag.

"I'm going to ask Aldo if I can change into something a little cleaner." she stated a little confidently, though her voice was quiet. Hugo gave a look of slight skepticism to which she sighed, picking her boots up off of the ground.

"It can't hurt to ask." she said. Hugo nodded and Anika took this to mean that she had his blessing. She nodded quickly before turning her gaze to the men, her eyes instantly locking onto Donny. He was talking in what looked like an angry manner to Hirschberg, apparently chewing him out for some mistake he'd made.

"You should probably go meet up with him now." she said. Hugo followed her gaze and sucked in a slow breath when he saw the large man, seemingly preparing himself for their meeting. He turned back to her with a curt nod and waited for her to make her way to Aldo before he left to speak with Donny. She walked back to the spot where Aldo was standing, his bright blue eyes surveying his men as they worked. His gaze came to her as she approached him and he let out a little exasperated sigh.

"What now?" he asked, his voice thick with irritateance.

"I was wondering if you'd let me go out into the clearing a little and change into the clothes that Smithson bought for me," before adding a quick "Lieutenant" to the end. Aldo sighed again.

"Now? Ya' can't wait 'til we get somewhere a lil more…secure than this?" he asked with a very serious and stern look on his tired features. Anika returned the stony look, bringing her eyes to meet his.

"With all due respect, Lieutenant Raine, but I'm barefoot and wearing a pair of pants that belong to one of your men with a fairly worn down potato sack that's covered in my own blood." she stated, laying out her discomfort for him. Aldo scrutinized her momentarily before nodding to her with slight reluctance.

"All right. But Stiglitz has tuh go with ya'. We wouldn't want anything' to happen to ya' before we got ya' safe, now would we?" he asked sarcastically. Anika wanted to bite back with something equally as snarkey, but thought better of it.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." she replied instead. With that, she turned from Aldo and carefully made her way back to Hugo. From the short distance between them, she could tell that he was inspecting his newly acquired rifle with an expert eye. Anika was intrigued by the way his cool blue eyes glided over the cold surface of the weapon, checking for any sort of flaws in its form. He lifted his gaze from the gun as she came up to him and brought his eyes to hers, waiting to hear what Aldo had said. She repeated what the older man had said to her. Hugo nodded to her and began to search the Basterds personal clearing in search of a secluded area for her to have some privacy. His eyes fell on a small cluster of trees behind her with plenty of coverage to keep her from the eyes of the men around her. He looked back at her with his cool gaze and gestured to the space with his head. Anika observed the trees and agreed that it was covered enough.

"There?" she asked quietly, turning back to the stoic German next to her. He nodded wordlessly. Anika returned the nod and then led the duo off to the side of the camp to the small cluster of trees with Hugo following close behind. She searched the space for a proper area to change before she found one slightly behind one of the trunks of the thick trees of the forest.

"Here is good." she said, turning back to Hugo. Again, he nodded. Anika nodded slightly in return and dropped her boots down again. She then took to removing her preferred clothing from her bag. She decided to save the dress for a day that she could fully bathe herself and instead pulled out the slacks, button up, a pair of boxers and a pair of slacks. She slipped her bag carefully off her shoulders, wincing at the slight burn in her muscles at the action and dropped it down carefully beside her boots. She set her clothes on top of the sack so that they wouldn't touch the ground and went to begin undressing until she realized that Hugo was still watching over her protectively. A slight blush crept over her cheeks, though she was sure he couldn't see it under the scratches across her face. She looked down at the ground, shifting her weight a bit from foot to foot, before she looked back to Hugo.

"Um, Hugo? Do you think you could…?" she asked, making a turning motion with one of her fingers. A slight quivering at the corners of his mouth and the brightening of his eyes signified amusement on the normally expressionless face of Hugo Stiglitz, but the emotion was gone as quickly as it came. He scanned the expanse of forest behind her quickly before he turned away from her, giving her his back. Anika sighed in relief and set off on her task of changing.

Less than five minutes later, she was pulling on her remaining boot. She tucked the length of her pants into the tops of her boots, much like the men did, before examining herself. The clothes were loose on her, but they fit for the most part. She certainly wasn't swimming in them. The boots were a size too large as she had expected, but they would not become a problem for her. She was simply thankful to have her feet covered in the damp conditions of the forest. Content with her appearance, she looked to the forest floor at the clothing she had shed. Deciding that they were mostly useless, she balled up her old undergarments and the potato sack and through them away from her. She sighed in relief as they pattered softly to the ground a few feet behind her and then stooped to pick up the pants Hirschberg had lent her. She folded the pants expertly, draped her bag across her shoulder again, and cleared her throat to receive Hugo's attention once more. He turned back to her slowly and she smiled to him, holding her arms out.

"Do I look too bad?" she asked a little self-consciously. Hugo let his gaze move down the form of her body. He took in each section of her body slowly, and Anika felt herself blushing again before he looked back into her eyes. He shook his head

"Nein." he rumbled and then stepped to his side meaning for her to walk ahead of him. She did so and brought them back to the group of men. Most of the men were wrapped up in checking their weapons, but Smithson noticed her return to the group. She smiled to him and showed him the clothes with a smile, which he returned proudly. She could see it that he was aware of how well he'd done. Aldo too noticed the two returning and turned to address his lot as a whole.

"Now that we got that outta the way, we're gon' be headin' out now. I'll be leadin' us off to our next lil hideout. I want Wicki an' Utivich to flank us. Donny, you'll be following me. Everyone else stay in the middle an' stay at the ready. There's lotsa Natzis roamin' around these parts an' we can't be caught off guard. Sound good?" he asked. The men, again, responded with a loud chorus of 'Yes sir's. Aldo waved a hand signaling for them to fall into formation. Before Anika could take a step Aldo locked his gaze with hers and gestured to Hugo.

"Yer tuh stay with him at all times. Do you understand?" he asked. Anika nodded.

"Yes, Lieutenant." she said, immediately moving close behind Hugo. The German looked over his shoulder at her to check her position and grunted in approval. After Aldo and Donny both checked the line, the group was off and into the depths of the French forest.


	8. PLEASE READ ME!

Hello dear readers!

Before you get excited, I have to warn you that this author's note that I'm posting right now is _not_ a prelude to a new chapter like my notes usually are; it's merely a note from me explaining to you all what's happening with this story and to address what has obviously been a hiatus in the writing/posting of this story.

Let me start off by saying that I _do_ plan to continue this story. I have no intention on giving up on it or just walking away from it, but I must admit that it will take some time for me to get that done, and there will also be some big things ahead. One of those big things is this: I'm going to be re-writing what I have so far before continuing this story. Now, I cannot say when exactly that will be because I've only just started the outline for version two of this tale, but it _will_ happen, and there will be no new chapters posted to this version because of it. The reason behind my decision to re-write this story is because I've hit a wall with the story as it's written due to several plot holes and inaccuracies I've let slip in my writing. There are some things that exist within the world of my story that I wish to either correct or remove, and I need that to happen before I feel comfortable enough to move on. I'm very big on accuracy and believability when it comes to story, and there are some things I've noticed in my story that I want to see fixed. I'm not going to point out specifics here; just know that some things will be different.

Now, there won't be many changes as far as the events of the story go; a lot of what I've written as 'happening' is staying the way it is, just in a different way. But there will be more added, more time within each entry, and more necessary details added to enhance the piece. I'm hoping to paint a better picture of the world in which the story exists instead of having you guys rely on what you've seen in the film, so yeah; there are many changes to come.

With all of that being said, I do realize that I risk a serious threat of losing readers because of my decision to re-write. Firstly, the hiatus will continue for however long it takes me to finish the re-write, and secondly, the story is going to be different no matter how slight or great it may seem. All I can ask is that you give me the chance to prove to you how great this story can be. You all seem to enjoy it enough as it is; I'm hoping to blow you away with what it will be. I understand if some or all of you don't want to wait it out for the new version, but I urge you to give it a chance. You never know; you could like it more than the original.

Now that I've pled my case, so to speak, I can move on to the most important part of this author's note (in my opinion). I want to thank you all for everything you have done for me when it comes to this story. I sincerely appreciate all of the reviews, the favorites, and the subscriptions you've all given me because of this story. I never expected to gain so many followers with this story; I just posted this story on a whim. I'm not a writer by nature; I'm a musician primarily, but to have my story and my character received so well and widely…it's truly an honor, guys. You all inspire me with your feedback, and I just want to thank you for that. You guys give me the strength and will to continue with this story, and it is for you that I want to make this story even better than it was before.

Okay, enough of all the business and sappiness. I've got to go now. I'm working on the re-write and trying to get it done as quickly as possible. I'll notify you all when the new version is posted by posting another chapter here with an author's note telling you that it's ready (basically, do what I'm doing right now). Thank you all so much, and I hope to hear from you all in the future

With all the hope and gratitude I have,

~ PQTS


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